Selectmen, school committee races top town elections
BY PETER A. SUTTERS JR. INDEPENDENT WRITER
After voting publicly at Annual Town Meeting this week, residents will have the chance to cast their votes for town leaders in the privacy of a voting booth on April 15. Polls open at 7 a.m. Tuesday at the high school and close at 8 p.m. There are 8,109 registered voters eligible for the election this year, up from 8,013 last year.

Alengthy list of candidates is vying for the chance to sit on a variety of town boards, led by four people running for two seats on the Board of Selectmen, two candidates seeking one seat on the Planning Board and three residents striving for two seats on the School Committee. Four candidates are also running for two seats on the Historic District Commission, with one incumbent in the mix.

Both the Board of Selectmen and School Committee have incumbents seeking reelection, while the Planning Board will have a fresh face after long-time member and current chairman Frank Spriggs elected not to run again. Selectman Michael

Kopko and Linda Williams are battling for the one

open seat on the Planning Board being vacated by Spriggs.

The HDC race features two of its alternates, the current chair and a newcomer going after two full time seats, one of which is being vacated by Dawn Holdgate. HDC chair Dirk Roggeveen is hoping to retain his seat on the board, while alternates John Wagley and Diane Coombs and architect David Barham are also in the running.

Two selectmen, chairman Whitey Willauer and Brian Chadwick, are looking to hold onto their seats for a second term, while Finance Committee chairman Rick Atherton and Nantucket Planning and Economic Development Commission and Conservation Commission member David Gray are running for the board after unsuccessful attempts in the past.

Dr. Timothy Lepore and Christine Elahi are attempting to hold onto their seats on the School Committee, while Robin Harvey is making her first run at public office.

There are also a number of uncontested races on Tuesday's ballot. Bill Blount and Fred Holdgate are the only candidates for two seats on the Shellfish and Harbor Advisory Board. Nelson Eldridge is running unopposed for the Nantucket Water Commission, Gerald Eldridge is the only candidate for the 'Sconset Water Commission, Selectman Allen Reinhard is running alone for one seat on the Land Bank and Linda Williams is seeking reelection to the Nantucket Housing Authority.

Typically fewer than half of the island's registered voters cast ballots in town elections, with contested races for selectmen seats in the past garnering 3,000 votes in 2005 and 3,969 in 2005. State or national elections usually bring more people to the polls, with 4,031 casting votes in the 2006 mid-term elections, and 3,336 filling in ovals for the presidential primary

last Feb. 5. I