The Berlin Election

by Kieron Kramer
Four candidates vied for two Town Council seats in Berlin in Tuesday’s election. The candidates for the other positions in Town government ran unopposed.
Tara Cinney Fisher and Dean Maxon were the top vote-getters in the contested race for Town Council. Fisher had 270 votes and Maxon 227. Bob Michaels finished a distant third with 134 votes, and Chris Baretsky received 78 votes. John Winn, running unopposed to fill the seat left vacant by the untimely death earlier this year of Board Member Richard von Schilgen, received 280 votes.
The only holdover from the current Board will be Town Supervisor Rob Jaeger, who ran unopposed and received 306 votes. So this is almost a completely new Board. Maxon, the only Democrat on the Board, served on the Town Board from 1990 to 1993, but Fisher and Winn are brand new to the Board. Fisher attends Board meetings regularly and was appointed Deputy Town Supervisor by Jaeger last January so she is likely to hit the ground running.
A replacement for recently resigned Board Member Jim Saunders will be named in January by the new Board.
The overall top vote getter in the election was Tax Collector Pam DeShane with 346 votes followed by Superintendent of Highways Jim Winn, 324, Town Justice Joe Rechen, 321, Town Clerk Anne Maxon, 318, Jaeger, 306, and Assessor Allan Yerton with 300.
Anne Maxon, the Town’s Democratic leader, was pleased with the make up of the new Board. “We will have a very good Board that will be able to work together,” she said.