March 14,[quote][/quote] 2012
Animal control officer position reinstated
By Doug Ireland
direland@eagletribune.com The Eagle Tribune Wed Mar 14, 2012, 03:58 AM EDT
DANVILLE — The town will have its own animal control officer again.
Residents voted, 418-263, yesterday to reinstate the position after it was eliminated a year ago.
Voters also elected incumbent Shawn O'Neil and Michelle Cooper to three-year terms on the Board of Selectmen. Thomas Billbrough Jr. was defeated in his bid to join the board.
Cooper was the top vote getter in the selectmen's race. She received 432 votes to 355 for O'Neil and 249 for Billbrough.
The proposal to reinstate the animal control officer position was submitted by Sheila Johannesen through a citizen petition.
Johannesen held the position until selectmen decided not to reappoint her in April 2011. Once the position was eliminated, the town contracted with Plaistow for animal control services.
Approval of the warrant article means an animal control officer will be elected each March, starting in 2013.
Johannesen said she intends to run for the position when the job is up for grabs next year. She was ecstatic after learning the vote results last night.
"I am very pleased with the results," Johannesen said. "It shows that people's pets are very important to them, and that local animal control is also very important to them."
Johannesen has claimed a "personal vendetta" prompted selectmen to end her employment with the town after seven years.
She and O'Neil, the board's chairman, often clashed over the animal control budget.
But O'Neil has said that's not why Johannesen was not reappointed.
It's a personnel matter that cannot be discussed publicly, he said.
In the only other contested race, Sarah Gannon-Weston was elected library trustee over Michelle O'Neil, 336-273. The position is for three years.
Residents voted, 338-329, to approve an operating budget of $2,740,652. The default budget was $2,715,584.
They also backed a proposal to allow drive-through windows at businesses in the Village District. The vote was 428-229.
But voters defeated, 396-280, an advisory warrant article that asked selectmen to adopt a mandatory recycling program.
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