CHELSEA — With a special town election set for next month to replace its four recently-resigned Selectboard members, Chelsea is hosting a “Meet Your Candidates” event next week to give residents a chance to converse with and learn about the seven candidates who have thrown their hats in the ring.
The seven hopefuls submitted consent forms and petitions, which needed signatures from at least 10 registered Chelsea voters, by the Nov. 28 deadline. Candidates had to designate which Selectboard seat they were hoping to win, as the four open seats come with different terms and different lengths of time remaining on the terms they would be filling.
■Kelly Nolan Lyford is running unopposed to serve the final two months of a three-year term;
■Dylan Greer and William Lyon are vying for two months of a one-year term;
■Ronald Johnson and Kevin S. Marshia are vying for one year of a two-year term;
■Leyna Hoyt and Nick Zigelbaum are seeking two years of a three-year term.
Chelsea Town Clerk Karen Lathrop has handled the organization and scheduling of the special election, including updating residents about the process and candidate information on the Chelsea Community Facebook page. She posted the announcement of the “Meet Your Candidates” event on the community page on Dec. 3 and via the town’s listserv.
“We didn’t expect to have an election in January,” Lathrop said. “But as far as getting out information, the more details and information (about the candidates) you can give people, the better.”
There are 955 Chelsea residents on the voter checklist, Lathrop said. The four new Selectboard members will be decided by secret ballot and would join with the lone remaining Selectboard member Geoff Clayton, who did not respond to requests for an interview.
The Jan. 3 special election comes after former Selectboard Chairman Levar Cole, Vice Chairman Mark Whitney and fellow Selectboard members Merrill Whitney and Bruce Hook resigned in mid-November following a contentious meeting on Nov. 10 regarding the resignation of longtime town road foreman Rick Ackerman, who’d quit two days prior after a series of disagreements with Selectboard members.
Following the resignations, Ackerman returned to his job as road foreman, along with one of the two road crew members who had quit with him, according to Lathrop.
She said Ackerman was a much-needed help with organizing and leading road crews during the Nov. 16 snowstorm that dropped roughly 4 inches on the town.
“We had a lot of people wondering who was going to take care of the roads,” Lathrop said. “We wanted to make sure the town was covered (during) the snowstorm.”
Lyford, Johnson, Marshia and Zigelbaum spoke with the Valley News about why they decided to run for the Chelsea Selectboard and their answers shed light on the community concerns facing the town. Messages left for the other three candidates — Dylan Greer, William Lyon, and Leyna Holt — were not returned.
Zigelbaum, who runs ZigelFarm, a pork-and-beef operation in Chelsea, has been a resident for 10 years and said he decided to run for the Selectboard following the slew of resignations this past November. His main goal is to bring “transparency and accessibility” back to the Selectboard, which he said he’s felt has been severely lacking in the past.
“The old board had stopped streaming their meetings, they didn’t provide any opportunity for people to call in,” Zigelbaum said. “They were really completely isolating themselves from the public.”
Zigelbaum, 39, whose term on the First Branch Unified District Board is ending in March of next year, said he wants to implement an option for the public to attend Selectboard meetings virtually. He believes it would help increase public engagement in town dealings and promote accountability and transparency for the Selectboard.
Zigelbaum called Chelsea an “excellent” town that needs “functional” leadership and cited his experience as a local business owner and school board member as qualifications that would help him should he be elected.
Experience in public governance is not unique to Zigelbaum among the candidates.
Lyford, who’s lived in Chelsea for 35 years, has also served as a School Board member in the past, and Marshia, a 48-year-old who has lived in Chelsea for the past 25 years, has served on the town’s planning commission, been town auditor, and is currently on its prudential committee that serves the town’s fire district.
The resignations in November spurred Lyford, 56, to consider running for an open seat. She currently works for the state of Vermont as a licenser in the Child Development Division and said she’s a certified public manager.
Because of her work experience, Lyford said she’s comfortable with and enjoys managing and navigating policies, rules and regulations and feels those skills could benefit the town.
“When the Selectboard resigned, I (said to myself) ‘OK, our town is in a crisis right now and people need to step up,” Lyford said. “I felt like I had something to offer the town.”
Lyford said if she was elected to the Selectboard she’d focus her initial efforts on creating transparent policies and procedures around the management of town personnel.
Marshia said he’d been thinking of running for the Selectboard for the past few years and, now that three of his four children are off to college, he’s got more time to take on the responsibility.
A transportation engineer with the Vermont Department of Transportation, Marshia also serves as chairman of the Vermont District 3 Environmental Commission, which is responsible for ensuring that local developments and subdivisions comply with Vermont’s land use and development laws.
Marshia believes Chelsea has “great potential” as a town and cited its downtown specifically as having room for economic growth. He said the town has attracted a number of young families over the last few years and wants to help that growth continue.
“Chelsea’s not like a lot of smaller, rural towns in Vermont with aging populations and aging infrastructure,” Marshia said. “… I think there’s a chance to do something with the resources we have in town.”
At 21, Ronald Johnson, who’s going up against Marshia in the January special election, is the youngest candidate in the special election and doesn’t come with any previous experience in a town or political office. But, as a lifelong resident of Chelsea, he believes he has insight into how the town operates.
“I take a lot of pride in the town of Chelsea,” Johnson said. “If there’s any way that I can make decisions and get involved in a way that benefits Chelsea, I’m gonna be all for it.”
Johnson is currently self-employed with his own landscaping business and is taking online classes at Southern New Hampshire University. He wants to be a teacher.
Though they’re running against each other, Marshia didn’t throw any barbs in Johnson’s direction while discussing the upcoming election. He praised him.
“He’s a nice young man,” Marshia said. “He went to school with my daughters.
“The town’s got a lot of good choices to make in January.”
The meet-and-greet is scheduled for Thursday from 6:30 to 8:15 p.m. at the Chelsea Town Hall, which is located in the Chelsea Historic District off Vermont Route 110.
Voting by Australian ballot will take place from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Jan. 3 at the Chelsea Town Hall.
Ray Couture can be reached at 802-751-9825.