$35M Merrimack Town, $81.9M School Budget Approved On Tuesday

MERRIMACK, NH — By a more than two-to-one margin, voters in Merrimack on Tuesday approved of a $34.5-plus million town budget.

Slightly less than 5,000 people — a relatively high turnout for a town election, cast ballots in town but were driven to the polls mostly by an open seat for a state representative seat after the death of Dick Hinch. Bill Boyd won that race by hundreds of votes.

Four town council candidates were seeking three, three-year seats with two candidates easily winning: Tom Koenig, who topped the ticket with 2,889 votes, and Nancy Harrington, who came in second, with 2,822 votes. Nancy Olson Murphy came in third with 2,321 — 140 votes more than a fourth-place finisher, Andy Hunter.

MacKenzie Murphy ran unopposed for the Ethics Committee while Michael Drouin and Janet Krupp did so for two library trustee seats. William Wilkes also ran unopposed for a single Trustee of the Trust Funds seat and Diane Trippett was elected town clerk/tax collector.

Voters approved all town articles — including nearly $1.9 million in capital equipment, $500,000 for sewer infrastructure and $75,000 for lake storm drainage, and a non-binding question recommending fair redistricting.

Voters had two school board races to consider.

In the first one, seven candidates sought two, three-year seats with Jenna Hardy and Lori Peters topping the ticket with 1,588 and 1,255 votes respectively. Kenneth Martin finished third with 1,109 votes and Scott Sabens received 1,087 votes while Michelle Bronchuk, David Sydow, and Chandra Miller all finished with between 703 and 925 votes.

Four candidates also sought a single one-year school seat. Cinda Guagliumi topped the ticket with 1,209 votes while Jennifer McCormack received 1,152 votes. Jaimie Von Schoen came in third and Rachel Paepke came in fourth.

Michael Alukonis, Richard Hendricks, and Shayne Albuquerque were elected to the Planning & Building Committee; MacKenzie Murphy, Ellen Wilson, Gillian Savitch, Naomi Schoenfeld, Brian Stisser, and Albuquerque were all elected to the budget committee unopposed.

One budget committee seat has not been decided since all the write-in votes have not been counted.

Voters approved all but one article: Article 6, rescinding the adoption of Article 7 of the 2006 School District Warrant establishing a budget committee. District voters approved a nearly $81.9 million school budget as well as raises for educational support staff, a $4 million lease on ventilation systems for schools, and acceptance of gifts, too.

Editor's note: The name of a budget committee candidate who could not serve due to not being qualified has been removed.

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