Brookfield Elects New Clerk, Will Hold Treasurer Run-off

Allison Hooper casts her Australian ballots at the Brookfield Town Meeting, Tuesday.

(Herald/Bob Eddy)

Voters in Brookfield secured a new town clerk, Carol Monness, to follow in the footsteps of Teresa Godfrey, but failed to decide on just one town treasurer—the vote ended in a tie.

Monness, the new clerk, won with 163 votes. Her two opponents, Celia Barnes and Amy Ingrassia, received 55 and 77 votes respectively.

Monness grew up in Brookfield and has lived there nearly her whole life. Having had training from the outgoing Godfrey, Monness said she is “thankful for her help and guidance going forward” as she looks to fill the big footsteps Godfrey left behind.

Godfrey—the town clerk, treasurer, delinquent tax collector, and lister for the past eight years—is moving to West Virginia.

Barnes and Ingrassia, while falling in the clerk race, both received 110 votes for the treasurer position. Monness got 72 write-ins. The town will now have to organize a runoff for the tiebreaker.

It could be another close one, looking at the delinquent tax collector race: Barnes won over Ingrassia, 124 votes to 114. Monness got 52 write-ins.

Two selectboard openings went to incumbents Betty Lord, with 217 votes, and Keith Sprague, with 227 votes. Jim Bolduc came in third with 65 votes.

A host of other candidates won their positions without opposition: Greg Wight for town moderator, Jon Jickling for town forester, Emily Noyes and Susan O’Brien for library trustees, Daniel Mason and Ed Neas for first and second constables and Thomas Garbitelli for lister.

The results by Australian ballot happened after Brookfield voters passed every article from the floor this morning, with only one lonesome nay heard from the folding chairs in Brookfield Elementary

School’s cafeteria.

Poll booths lined the wall with striped red, white and blue curtains, and the room was lively compared to the roads residents needed to travel on to get there.

This year’s town report and meeting was dedicated to Godfrey for her years in the town office.

“I think we’re all going to miss her,” selectboard chair John Benson said finishing his opening remarks, which were followed by a standing ovation for Godfrey.

Benson led the meeting reporting on current projects and acknowledging that the town was recently behind on road maintenance with the arrival of winter weather because two dump trucks were down and crew members had been out with pneumonia.

Residents voted to allow the town to order a replacement dump truck to be delivered in the fall of 2024 for almost $167,000, plus financing. That measure was just to allow the board to place the order; the actual bill will go before voters next year, Benson said.

The approval came to the chagrin of one resident, who said she was tired of having so many 10-wheeler trucks in town.

Voters approved another $85,000 from excess revenues to replace the town’s one-ton dump truck, used for plowing smaller roads.

Three other expenses passed under Article 8: $60,000 for road improvements, $50,000 to reduce taxes and $50,000 to replace the shed at the town garage. The total $245,000 comes from the town’s current cushion of $680,000 in excess revenues.

Article 9, a modification to the terms of the selectboard members, prompted the most discussion. In an effort to have board seats rotate on a more regular timeline, the measure asked whether voters would approve changing the all-three-year terms of the board members to three three-year terms and two two-year terms.

Local attorney Aaron Adler said state law requires added selectboard positions to have either one or two-year terms. Currently, Brookfield has all five selectboard positions at three-year terms. A motion to reduce two of those terms to two years carried, but there was still confusion and debate about whose terms will be reduced.

“I think it’s a disadvantage to anyone on the selectboard to reduce their term and have to go through an additional election,” resident Joy Kacik said.

Adler recommended the town get an opinion from the secretary of state and said the two newest positions should be the ones reduced.

The general fund budget passed at a little over $550,000, and the budget for the highway fund passed at just over $907,000. With the general fund budget, officials have said the main reason for the significant increase came from inflation.

“Cost of fuel, cost of labor, cost of materials, sand, you name it. It’s all gone up,” Benson explained.

Another item causing the budget to increase was the addition of health care and dental benefits for the town clerk and treasurer positions, as required by law.

Voters also approved routine borrowing and tax-related items. Taxes will be collected on November 4 and May 4.

The meeting was quick. In fact, said resident Linda Runnion, “I think it’s the quickest one I’ve ever been to in the past 50 years.”

Runnion and other residents finished the meeting similarly to how it started— with applause.

View the original story on the Herald of Randolph