Waterbury Select Board race attracts a crowd

Write-ins step up to complete ballot choices 

February 22, 2022 | By Lisa Scagliotti 

Matthew Abair

Michael Bard

Roger Clapp

Alyssa Johnson

Flora Scott

Elisabeth (Lisa) Walton

A week from the Town Meeting Day election, Waterbury now has write-in candidates interested in offices vacant on the ballot and a write-in entry for select board makes it a five-way race for two seats on the board. 

Randall Street resident Roger Clapp, who has volunteered for more than 10 years as an organizer of Waterbury Winterfest, announced Sunday that he would serve a one-year term on the select board if a write-in effort over the next week is successful. 

Select board members Katie Martin and Chair Mark Frier announced last month that they would not seek re-election. Four contenders made it to get their names on the ballot interested in the one-year seats that Frier and Martin are vacating. 

Only one of the candidates on the ballot for those seats has had experience in town government, Planning Commission Chair Alyssa Johnson is one of the candidates. Meanwhile, incumbent select board member Michael Bard is unopposed for re-election to the three-year seat that is on the ballot. 

Candidates for select board recently answered a survey from Waterbury Roundabout that was posted online. It asked contenders their views on a variety of issues they are likely to encounter over the next year if they were to serve on the board. Topics included decisions about how to spend federal American Rescue Plan Act funding and whether to merge the Edward Farrar Utility District into town government. It polled candidates on issues including affordable housing, retail cannabis, and the new inclusion banner the current select board created to fly near the town offices. 

Clapp’s responses to the survey have been added to the results online in Waterbury Roundabout’s Town Meeting section. 

The candidates who appear on the ballot for the two one-year select board seats are: 

• Matt Abair, a lifelong Waterbury resident, who has been a member of the Waterbury Volunteer Fire Department. Abair is in the Vermont National Guard and works as a regional supervisor for a national property management company. In high school, Abair said he learned about local government firsthand when he interned with community television and recorded meetings of local municipal boards including the select board. 

• Alyssa Johnson joined the Waterbury Planning Commission in April 2021 and became chair in May. Johnson has been in Waterbury since 2017 when she was hired as economic development director with Revitalizing Waterbury following her graduation from the University of Vermont. She now works at the Vermont Council on Rural Development. She has a website with more information at bit.ly/AlyssaForWaterbury. 

• Flora Scott recently moved to Waterbury last year, returning to Vermont after working as an actor in New York City and Washington, D.C. She penned a commentary for VTDigger and several other newspapers about the importance of Vermont sheriffs last year. In attending a November select board meeting, she commented during the discussion of the inclusion banner wording which ultimately was derived from the Declaration of Inclusion the board adopted in January 2021. 

• Elisabeth (Lisa) Walton has been active recently attending and commenting at select board meetings. In November she objected to the select board creating the inclusion banner to fly in the space allotted for event announcements and to wording board members proposed for it. In December she spoke against a mask requirement which the board ultimately decided not to entertain. 

Other races on the ballot 

The Town Meeting Day ballot has candidates for a number of other local offices although none of the other spots are contested. 

Town Clerk and Treasurer Carla Lawarence is unopposed to be re-elected to her positions as is Town Meeting Moderator Jeffrey Kilgore. A moderator will not be needed this year as there is no in-person meeting on March 1. Should a special town meeting occur before next March, however, a moderator would possibly fill that role.

Other uncontested offices include five-year terms on the Cemetery Commission (candidate Barbara Walton) and Library Commission (candidate Margaret Moreland); incumbent Alec Tuscany is a candidate for a three-year seat on Board of Listers. 

A second spot on the Library Commission, two years remaining on a five-year term, has no candidate listed on the ballot. However write-in candidate Deanna King stepped up last week to declare her interest.  

Two seats on the Harwood Unified Union School Board representing Waterbury are on the ballot. 

The full three-year term has one candidate, Victoria Taravella. 

A second seat is the remaining two years in a three-year term that’s been held by two individuals in the past year. Michael Frank was elected to the seat in March 2021. When he resigned in June, Scott Culver was appointed. Culver stopped attending board meetings in December and did not file to run for the rest of the term. 

That open seat has attracted candidate Jacqueline Kelleher, who declared her interest as a write-in recently. Write-in candidates need a minimum of 30 votes to win their election, according to Town Clerk Carla Lawrence.

Waterbury has the most seats on the HUUSD School Board with four. The other five towns each have two members. Votes of Waterbury members also carry the most weight on the board, counting for just under 10% apiece.