Sweeping changes to council
by Joseph Gresser
NEWPORT — The city’s voters went to the polls on March 4 and replaced three-fifths of the council. They elevated council member Rick Ufford-Chase to the office of mayor, and replaced council members Clark Curtis and Chris Vachon with Andrew Touchette and A. Carter Finegan.
Mr. Ufford-Chase ran unopposed as Mayor Linda Joy Sullivan decided not to seek reelection. City Council President Vachon, likewise, decided to retire from the council. The only member of the Newport City Council to seek another term was Clark Curtis, but voters declined to keep him in office.
As is often the case in Newport, a small minority of the city’s approximately 4,000 registered voters turned out to cast ballots. Of them 427 voted for Mr. Ufford-Chase, 62 cast write-in votes, and 60 left the mayor’s line blank.
In council voters Mr. Touchette was the top vote-getter — 343 people checked the box next to his name. Ms. Finegan garnered 301 votes, while the remaining three candidates were far behind. Mr. Curtis had 167 votes, Carl P. King 130, and Adam Ortiz got 49.
There were 3 write-in votes and 95 blank votes in the council races.
City Clerk and Treasurer James Johnson got a solid vote of confidence for his clerking — capturing 484 votes. He was slightly less popular when wearing his treasurer’s hat, collecting eight fewer votes — 476 in all. He ran unopposed for both roles.
Neither Mary Ellen Maclure nor Christopher Royer faced competition in their races. Voters again put Ms. Maclure on the Newport City Elementary School board and Mr. Royer on the North Country Union High School and Junior High School boards.
Newport voters approved city spending of $5,267,700.20 for the coming year, up a bit more than 5 percent from the current $4,995,594 budget.
The Newport City Elementary School budget of $8,802,517 also got the nod. It was significantly higher than the $8,217,575 approved last year, but school officials said that once the numbers are crunched by the Agency of Education, voters will see a minimal increase in education taxes in the coming year.
In an effort to reduce the budget presented to city residents, the council pulled out the costs of running Newport’s recycling center and placed them as a separate article on the Warning. That article, calling for spending of $49,847, got overwhelming approval as did all articles calling for support of local civic organizations.
With Mr. Ufford-Chase taking the mayor’s chair one of the first orders of business for the council will be appointing a replacement to fill the seat he leaves vacant.
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