SOUTH HADLEY — The Select Board has postponed a decision on whether to hold a special election to fill the vacant seat left on the board after one of its members died on June 3.
Sarah Etelman, a member of the Select Board since 2013, died after a battle with pancreatic cancer. She was 53 years old. Etelman’s death has left a vacancy on the five-person Select Board, which must soon decide whether to hold a special election to fill her position or leave the seat open until her term expires in April 2023.
“This is a big loss,” Select Board member Carol Constant said at the board’s Tuesday meeting. “I don’t know what to think. It’s going to be really tough to ask somebody to run for election in the fall and then run for election again in the spring, that’s one of my concerns about it.”
Town Administrator Lisa Wong explained that the Select Board can choose to leave the seat vacant, though 200 registered voters could override that decision to force an election if they choose.
“Or, the board can proactively call a special election,” Wong said.
With a statewide primary election approaching on Sept. 6 and a general election on Nov. 8, Wong said the Select Board could choose to hold a special election on those dates. That would save the town money, she said, though there would still be costs because the Select Board election would have to appear on a separate ballot.
Select Board member Renee Sweeney said there would be higher turnout for an election pegged to either the primary or general election dates, but that the Select Board doesn’t know how many people would be interested no matter when the election is. Sweeney suggested that a signature campaign to call an election may be a clue as to how much interest there is for somebody to run this fall, only to have to run again in the spring.
Wong said that with only four members on the Select Board, problems could arise if the board is split on any particular issue. Wong said that many Select Board items come from her office, and that if there were a split vote, she would work to bring back a proposal that could garner more support. Jeff Cyr, the Select Board’s chairman, said that only works if the issue isn’t time-sensitive.
Ultimately, the Select Board decided to table a vote on whether to hold a special election, especially considering that member Andrea Miles was not at Tuesday’s meeting.
The Select Board could take up the issue again at their next meeting on July 12, though that would preclude them from calling a special election on Sept. 6 because of deadlines the town has to meet to hold an election. The board could also take up the vote in a special meeting before then.
So far, Wong and the Select Board members said that they haven’t heard from anybody expressing interest in running for the position.
Dusty Christensen can be reached at dchristensen@gazettenet.com.