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After more than four decades on Marblehead’s Board of Assessors, John Kelley said he will not seek reelection this year, opening one of the town’s longest-held elected seats as Marblehead prepares to fill 24 seats across 11 elected bodies in the June 9 town election.
“I’ve been thinking about it for the past year and a half, and it’s time for the next generation,” Kelley told the Independent.
Kelley, who has served on the board since 1983, said the role looked very different when he first took office.
“It started with paper and pencil and it was a working board,” he said.
His departure creates an open race for assessor. Bryan G. Adams, who is not listed as an incumbent on the unofficial candidate sheet, is the only candidate currently listed for the seat.
The list shows a broad but uneven field across town government, with most races either uncontested or underfilled and just one apparent contested race so far.
Rossana Ferrante, chair of the Recreation and Park Commission, is the only listed candidate for Marblehead’s two open Select Board seats, leaving that race underfilled for now. Ferrante is not an incumbent on the Select Board. In total, 21 candidates are listed across the ballot’s local contests.
The only apparent contest is for a two-year unexpired term on the Cemetery Commission, where Sally Bull Sands and Rose A. McCarthy are both listed for one opening. Neither is marked as an incumbent. For the commission’s separate regular seat, incumbent David J. Meyer is the only candidate shown.
Several races appear filled but uncontested. The Board of Health has three candidates for three seats: incumbent Thomas R. McMahon, along with Julie B. Selbst and Kristin Elizabeth Dubay Horton, neither of whom is listed as an incumbent. The Library Board of Trustees has two candidates for two seats: incumbent Katherine H. Barker and Gary J. Amberik, who is not marked as an incumbent. The Planning Board also has two candidates for two seats, and both are incumbents: Robert John Schaeffner Jr. and Marc J. Liebman.
All five listed candidates for Recreation and Park are marked as incumbents: Christopher E. Kennedy, Shelly Curran Bedrosian, Karin Linnea Ernst, Kenneth S. Klaiman and Larry J. Simpson. Water and Sewer also appears uncontested, with both listed candidates — Barton Hyte and Gregory W. Burt — marked as incumbents.
The School Committee has two candidates for two seats: Melissa Marie Clucas and Annmarie Jordan. Neither is marked as an incumbent on the sheet.
Also listed as sole candidates for single-seat offices are incumbent John Gregory Attridge for moderator and incumbent Matthew B. Harrington for light commissioner. The Housing Authority remains vacant on the unofficial list, with no candidate listed for its one open seat.
The current lineup remains preliminary. Candidates must still return completed nomination papers to the town clerk’s office by 5 p.m. April 21 to secure a place on the ballot.
Marblehead voters will head to the polls June 9 to fill 24 seats across 11 elected bodies.
For Kelley, the coming election marks the end of a tenure that stretches back to a different era of town government, when, he said, the work of assessing was still done by hand.
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