Wareham will welcome two new faces to the Select Board as Sherry Quirk and Sarah Corbitt won three-year and two-year seats on the Select Board following the town’s Tuesday, May 7 election. 

Quirk, Chair of the Alternative Energy Committee, took home the three-year seat on the Select Board with 1,243 votes. Quirk’s challenger, former Select Board Member Brenda Eckstrom had 573 votes.

“I’m really happy, and mostly because there are a lot of things that I’d like to do to help the town,” said Quirk. “I’ll work really hard and will try to make a real difference.”

Eckstrom ran for multiple positions, and did not win any of the races she entered.

“I’m estatic that almost 2,000 people came out to vote,” Eckstrom said. She added, “If I hadn’t run, four positions would have run unopposed... they wouldn’t have had to tell people what they stand for.”

Former Wareham Courier Editor Sarah Corbitt won the race for a two-year seat on the Select Board with 808 votes. Deneen Rose, Onset Cape Verdean Festival Association President, took 458 votes, Jared Fredrickson, former Wareham Redevelopment Authority intern, took 379 votes and Russel Kriehn, who resigned from the race but whose name was still on the ballot, took 146 votes.

“I’m just really glad I’m won,” said Corbitt. “I’m really glad that the people of Wareham voted for me, and I’m looking forward to serving them.”

Fredrickson said, “It is what it is.” He added he was glad for the high turnout; “I’m glad to know that the people of Wareham made their voices heard.”

“I believe Sarah will do a good job,” said Rose. “I would like to thank those in the community who encouraged me, supported me and voted for me in this election, till the next time.”

School Committee incumbents Apryl Rossi and Geoff Swett both retained their seats with 1,357 and 1,239 votes respectively. Challenger Eckstrom took 560 votes. 

“I’m really excited that enough people believed in me to re-elect me for another three-year term,” said Rossi. She added, she hopes to continue to serve as a delegate to the Massachusetts Association of School Committees.

Swett said the School Committee is facing difficult problems in education generally, including chronic absenteeism, test scores that haven’t recovered from the Covid pandemic and the increased difficulty of paying for public education. “I’m always grateful when the voters trust me to do what’s in their best interests,” he said.

This election saw a 10.2% voter turnout with 1,908 of 18,925 voters casting their ballot,  according to Wareham Town Clerk Lisa Johnson.

Sandra Slavin beat out Eckstrom to retain her three-year Sewer-User seat on the Sewer Commission, with 1,366 votes to 417. 

Steve Curry and John Donahue won seats on the Board of Assessors, with 1,347 and 1,268 votes respectively. Eckstrom took 481 votes. 

James Munise won against  William Silvia for a one-year term on the Housing Authority, with 880 and 805 votes respectively. 

Three races on the ballot were unopposed. Claire Smith took 1,628 votes for the Deputy Moderator position, incumbent James Giberti took 1,522 votes for a Non-Sewer-User seat on the Sewer Commission and Dennis Praino took 1,527 votes for a five-year term on the Housing Authority. 

A ballot question asking voters to approve changes made to the Town Charter succeeded, with 1,171 votes “yes” and 527 votes “no”. 

The changes to the charter “fall into two categories,” according to Town Administrator Derek Sullivan. The first are “formatting, grammatical and typographical changes,” while the second involve “substantive changes.”

One change made the Town Clerk an appointed position, chosen by the Town Administrator, rather than an elected one. Another made it so that four votes from the Select Board are required to remove the Town Administrator, rather than three. A third provides for regular review of the charter.