Dear Editor,
I write to thank the voters who attended the annual town meeting (ATM) on Monday evening. We gathered again on the Manchester Essex Middle/High School’s Hyland Field, as we did last year. Thanks to thorough preparation by town board members, we were able to complete the town’s essential business in less than two hours and dissolve a few minutes before sunset.
Our new Town Clerk, Dianne Bucco, oversaw preparation and logistics for the ATM. No one could have guessed this was her first outdoor town meeting. Shawn Johnson and his crew from the Department of Public Works set up the field and did so efficiently and with good humor, despite my changing the arrangement of chairs halfway through in order to accommodate more voters. Volunteers at the ATM itself included Registrar of Voters Eileen Buckley, and Kathy Ryan, Kellie Dodd, Muffin Driscoll, Ellen Flatley, Elaine Persons, Michelle Bayer, Pam Thorne, Lee Simonds, Carolyn Kelly, Gretchen Wood, Martha Gubbins, Alison Anholt-White, Susan Myrak and Bion Pike. This was a team effort, for which I am grateful.
One voter rose during the meeting to thank the Board of Selectmen for their leadership during a difficult year in which they dealt with the effects of the pandemic and the public negotiation of major development proposal. The meeting joined in a round of applause, and I offer my own congratulations to Eli Boling, Jeff Bodmer-Turner, Ann Harrison, Becky Jaques and John Round.
Sincerely yours,
Alan Wilson, Manchester Town Moderator
