Amy Hansen and Jeff Grip win Hampton Select Board seats: Election results
Hansen, the current board chair, won her second straight term and a three-year seat with 1,972 votes, defeating Regina Barnes who had 763 votes and Brian Warburton who had 671. Grip won a two-year seat in a four-way race defeating Bruce Theriault's 756 votes, Derek Beaupre's 408 votes and Matthew Flynn's 401 votes.
'I'm a little speechless,' Hansen said Tuesday after the results were posted. 'I'm very excited and relieved the campaigning process is over.'
In the race for School Board, voters elected Sarah Elliott and Candice O'Neil. They defeated incumbents Ginny Bridle Russell and Leslie Shepard as well as Frank Bajowski.
In other contested races, a three-way race for two three-year seats on the Budget Committee was won by Fred Diana and Michael Plouffe. For the one-year seat on the Budget Committee, Aleksandra Ring defeated Mary Blackwell, Joseph Bamforth and Patrick Sheridan.
Matthew Saunders was elected to the Zoning Board while Sharon Mullen and Keith Lessard were re-elected to the town Planning Board.
In the race for town clerk, Cheryl Hildreth defeated Beth Frongillo by a vote of 2,010 to 1,121.
The town also voted 2,245 to 971 to approve the town's proposed $36.3 million operating budget, which was $67 less than the default budget.
Sixty-seven percent of the budget consists of wages ($15.6 million) and employee benefits ($8.7 million). Other items include $2.8 million in debt payments, $2.2 million for contracts, and $1 million for repairs and maintenance.
The school budget was approved by a vote of 2,229 to 1,081.
Also gaining approval were two three-year employee contracts: one for Hampton police officers and another for the department's sergeants. Both contracts feature adjustments to the current salary schedule, with a 6.5% wage increase in the first year, and a 3% increase in the second and third years. Additionally, the contracts address adjustments to health insurance and an increase in private detail wages, paid by outside vendors. The new contract also introduces Juneteenth as a holiday and provides a stipend for patrolmen assigned with a police K-9.
Voters also approved $300,000 from the town's unassigned fund balance to repair and upgrade the Hampton Public Safety Pier.
A citizens' petition request to amend the elderly property tax exemption program to increase an applicant's net assets from $250,000 to $367,000 to qualify was rejected. Four other citizens' petitions deemed illegal by the town attorney were also rejected, including one to regulate commercial businesses in the residentially zoned district at 17/17R Barbour Road.
For the first time in decades, voters rejected a citizens' petition for $52,958 to provide child benefit services for Hampton students who attend Sacred Heart School.
Voters have supported providing funding under RSA 198:49 to the Catholic school each year since 1975. The state law was created to allow non-public schools the means of attaining educational resources normally provided to public schools by the state.
None of the funds are used for religious purposes and are directly used to benefit the students from Hampton who attend the school.
The article, which was not recommended by the School Board or Budget Committee, was defeated by a vote of 1,345 to 1,961.
This article originally appeared on Portsmouth Herald: Amy Hansen re-elected to Hampton Select Board: Election results
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