Incumbents Win at Norton Town Election

The incumbents prevailed this year at the Norton town election.

Selectmen Bob Kimball and Robert Salvo held their positions in the board. Kimball received 1,386 votes and Salvo received 1,141. Challenger George Gillis received 474 votes.

School committee incumbent Andrew Mackie received 943 votes, and Valerie Desmond received 1,141 votes, taking Beth McManus’ seat after she resigned. Mark Powers received 523 votes and Daniel Sheedy received 345 votes.

“First I certainly want to get a good handle on what’s going on currently,” she said. “I want to work in a real collaborative way. That would be top on my list right now. I’m excited, it was my first time running for public office."

Desmond added she is very grateful to the town for the large level of support she received.

“I’m really grateful, I’ve had great support in the town, a lot of friends and family that have really stepped up to get the word out. I’m looking forward to it.”

Mackie said he is also grateful to the town for having another opportunity to continue to serve on the school committee, and continue the projects he and the other members have worked on.

“I want to continue to have a positive impact on the education of the students of Norton,” he said. “I want to continue the way we’re going. I feel really good, really appreciative to the town.”

Kimball agreed, saying he wants to continue to rebuild Norton, if the economy continues to improve, back to its former state.

“We want to rebuild our infrastructure,” he said. “As the economy gets better hopefully we can make some improvements on some of the buildings we’ve neglected in the past five years. We need to look at our public safety, police and fire, perhaps we can try to bring in some more people and cut down the overtime. I think we should also work on weed control in our public water bodies, before our water bodies become swamps or marshes.”