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Date: 5/19/2022
HAMPDEN – Patrick Coyne defeated John Matthews in a bid for a seat on the Hampden Planning Board in the May 16 town election. The final tally showed Matthews received 111 votes, while 365 residents voted for Coyne.
A total of 480 residents came out to vote in the election out of 3,812 registered voters in Hampden. This equates to a 13 percent voting attendance rate.
The Planning Board was the only contested race on the ballot, but it had become contentious when a letter from Matthews to a plaintiff in a lawsuit against the town surfaced. The letter documented Matthews’s opinions on the 2021 self-storage case at 2 Somers Rd., which is the subject at the center of the lawsuit.
Heading into the election, Matthews had served 13 years on the Planning Board. After two resignations in August 2021, Matthews was chosen to be the chair of the board and oversaw the remainder of two special permit petitions seeking self-storage businesses. The issue was highly controversial and spurred the creation of the ad-hoc group Save Hampden, of which Coyne was a vocal supporter.
Coyne’s term is for five years. Heather Beattie and Christina Brodeur had been previously appointed to fill two Planning Board seats when sitting members resigned. The two were elected to continue to fill those seats.
Additional candidates either ran unopposed or were selected for positions through write-in votes. Richard Green was re-elected with 391 votes as moderator for a one year term. Heather Beattie was elected to the Planning Board for a one year term with 351 votes. Christina Brodeur was also elected to the Planning Board for a three year term with 351 votes.
Donald Davenport was re-elected to the Board of Selectmen for three years with 383 votes. Eva Wiseman was re-elected as both Town Clerk and Town Collector, both three year terms, with 420 and 418 votes respectivley.
Richard Patullo was re-elected as treasurer for a three-year term with 389 votes. Jason Barroso was re-elected to the Board of Assessors for three years with 341 votes. Kathleen Hutchison was re-elected as a library trustee for a three-year term with 384 votes.
Edward Salerno Jr. was elected as cemetery commissioner for a three-year term with only five votes as a write in candidate. As of press time, Salerno had not yet accepted the position.
Dennis Hackett Sr. and Andrew Phillip Netherwood were re-elected as constables for three-year terms with 375 and 304 votes respectivley. Edward Poulin was also elected as a constable with 329 votes.
A three-year term for park commissioner remains vacant. While there were six write-in votes for this position, there were not enough to result in an elected individual to the role.