Publish Date: 4/5/2006

Final Mead trustee position determined by two votes

By Ben Ready
The Daily Times-Call

MEAD — The polls at town hall drew about 100 fewer people than most Mead municipal elections.

It may not sound like much, but for a community of 1,601 registered voters, that’s a 6 percent drop in civic participation.

“I expected a higher turnout to be honest,” said Richard Macomber, the uncontested mayoral candidate, who received 135 votes Tuesday. “I wish we had more.”

Macomber, a current trustee, said he’s excited to continue working with the top two trustee candidate vote-getters — incumbents John Heard and Ursula Morgan, who won 125 and 109 votes respectively.

“They’ll provide some continuation and legacy knowledge of what has gone before,” Macomber said.

The board also has two new trustees.

Joining Macomber, Morgan and Heard on the board will be Gerard Torres, who won a four-year trustee seat with 106 votes, and Fred Meine, who won a two-year term as trustee with 104 votes. Roberta Grimaldi garnered 102 votes.

Meine was philosophical about serving an initial two-
year term.

“I think it’s maybe a blessing,” he said. “It gives me a chance to get involved and see if I can make it.”

Heard, after hearing he’d retained his seat on the board, said in phone interview with the Daily Times-Call: “It’s like asking the Super Bowl winners, ‘What are you doing,’ and they say, ‘I’m going to Disneyland.’ I’m already here.”

For his children’s spring break, Heard and his family are vacationing in Disneyland in California.

According to town Clerk Candace Bridgwater, roughly 17 percent of Mead’s registered voters typically vote in any given municipal election. This year, 11 percent cast ballots.

Meine said the low turnout was a shame.

“It’s terrible,” he said. “People are griping and bitching about what you do, and they don’t go to meetings and they don’t vote.”

Morgan attributed the lack of voter interest to an unusually late school spring break, which is typically at the end of March instead of early April.

“People are on vacation,” she said.

Morgan celebrated her re-election at home on the couch with popcorn, a movie and her family.

It’s the same thing she’d be doing if she had lost, Morgan said.

Ben Ready can be reached at 303-684-5326, or by e-mail at bready@times-call.com.

Mead mayor

Macomber 135

Trustees

Heard 125
morgan 109
torres 106
meine 104
Grimaldi 102

Total ballots cast: 171