Fire district election tonight
Keith Clark became chairman of the Board of Fire Commissioners in January and wants another 5-year term as a commissioner.
Fire Commissioner Keith Clark may be running without opposition tonight, but he’s still hoping that despite the wet weather, people will turn out to vote at the Center Firehouse between 6 and 9 p.m.
At their recent monthly meeting, commissioners said they are hoping for a decent turnout as a show of support for the work they and firefighters do to keep the Island safe.
Mr. Clark has been a commissioner for a dozen years and is currently chairman of the Shelter Island Board of Fire Commissioners. He’s seeking another five-year term on the board.
Voting will be by paper ballot in line with a resolution the commissioners adopted two years ago calling for use of a voting machine only in cases where there’s a contested election.
In 2012, John Beresky ran a write-in campaign and there were questions about the use of paper ballots and whether or not votes had been correctly counted. Accordingly, last December, when Mr. Beresky was on the ballot in an unsuccessful bid to oust Commissioner Andy Steinmuller, the plan was to use a voting machine.
But the machine failed to be delivered and the fire district vote last year had to use paper ballots.
This year, with no one else seeking the seat and no expectation of a write-in campaign, the commissioners approved the use of paper ballots.
