Collins Wins Select Board Seat in DaltonBy Sabrina Damms, iBerkshires Staff
08:08PM / Monday, February 03, 2025 | |
 Robert Collins, center, celebrates his Select Board win with supporters William Drosehn, chair of the Finance Committee, and Rachel Branch at Dewey's on Monday night. |
Robert Collins, left, chats with friends and supporters at a victory party at Dewey's.
DALTON, Mass. — Robert Collins will join the Select Board as it's fifth member after winning a four-way special election for the vacant seat by 13 votes.
"I'm happy. It's sort of over, a little bit overwhelming, now that we've gotten this far through this process. Now the hard work really begins of putting your platform and information that you've put out there in motion," Collins said.
Almost 500 residents cast their votes at Monday's special election to decide on four candidates: Collins, Rich Haley, Levi Renderer, and Patrick Carsell.
The unofficial results are Collins with 212, Haley with 199, Renderer 23, and Carsell with 97.
Collins will fill the seat left open when former member Joseph Diver stepped down in October, but only until the annual town election.
Considering the seat will only be filled for four months, Town Clerk Heather Hunt said she is very pleased with the turnout.
"It speaks to the fact people want their voices heard, which is why this is an important election. It is important for enough people to turn out to vote," she said
The town sent out 57 mail-in ballots and received back 51.
The seat will be up for election again in May for a three-year term, along with the seat currently filled by Marc Strout, who is completing his three-year term.
Collins has already expressed his intention to run again for the May elections to retain his seat on the board.
He said the campaign had been a very cordial one, emphasizing how he hopes to see his opponents participating in town, whether on other committees or as a future members of the Select Board.
This sentiment was also expressed by Carsell, who said, "the results are excellent. I support any one of the four candidates that was running, and I'm very happy that [Collins] has won the election."
Carsell said he is still deciding on whether he will run again in the spring.
"I hope that in that I'm able to serve in any capacity going forward," he said.
Haley said he does not know whether he will run again in the spring.
"I think we both ran great campaigns. And I think people just wanted to back who they backed. I think I had some of the younger votes, and Mr. Collins had some of the older votes," he said.
"And I think it was good to see, I know, personally, a lot of my younger friends came out to vote, and that was that was nice to see the younger population to come out and vote."
Renderer said he was happy for Collins.
"You never know what is going to happen until you give it a shot," he said. "It was fun but I don't think I will run again in the spring."
Collins believes his campaign for change resonated with his supporters.
"I think they're looking for new ideas, new people on the boards. And I in my platform, I think I gave a lot of information that people were able to process and understand where my thoughts of and intentions truly are for the town of Dalton," he said.
Updated with quotes at 9:16 p.m.
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