WESTHAMPTON — In small-town politics, winning an election by five votes isn’t that uncommon — but usually, a winner with that small a margin isn’t running unopposed.

By just five votes, incumbent Philip Dowling was elected Saturday to serve another three years on the Select Board, while Bradford K. Morse, owner of Outlook Farm, drew in 59 write-in votes — a hand-count away from Dowling’s 64.

But if the close call was surprising to Dowling, it was even more so to Morse, who said he made no attempts to run, and had no ambition to do so.

“I didn’t even vote,” Morse said. “It was just a matter of chance.”

Morse served on the Select Board for a couple years in the 1980s, but said he doesn’t plan to become involved in politics again. Nevertheless, he said he knew people wanted him to serve on the Select Board, and had he received the votes, he would have served to the best of his ability.

For Town Clerk Patricia Cotton, the Select Board race was completely unexpected. In the seven years she’s been with the town, Cotton said she’s never seen a write-in vote come so close.

On Saturday, 138 of the 1,237 registered voters cast ballots, a turnout of approximately 11.2 percent.

Robert Turner was re-elected to serve on the Planning Board for three years, as was Thomas Cleary Jr., while former Planning Board member Robert Dragon Jr. did not run for re-election. Joseph Pipczynski was re-elected to the Finance Committee to serve a one-year term. Peter Montague and Wade Clement were elected to serve on the committee for three years.

William Jablonski was elected to serve for one year on the Hampshire Regional School Committee. For the Elementary School Committee, Peter Cleary and Morley C. Cleary were re-elected and Chrissa Young was elected, filling a vacant seat.

For library trustees, Maureen Dempsey and Carol McMurrich were re-elected, and Brian Mulvehill, who had served under an appointment, was officially elected.

Other re-elections are Stephan Holt as tree warden, Richard Tracy as town moderator and Charles Inmann as constable.

Voters also approved a non-binding ballot question to seek issuance of a separate ZIP code.

The town’s postal code is currently 01027 — the same ZIP code as Easthampton. The shared code can cause confusion, sometimes with cable service in the area and sometimes while searching directions.

Ginny Curtis is spearheading the effort and said petitions to seek issuance of a separate ZIP code are available at the Town Hall, library and Outlook Farm.

Caitlin Ashworth can be reached at cashworth@gazettenet.com.

]]>