Patch Snap: Honoring 40 Years of Public Service

Welcome to another edition of Patch Snap, where we highlight a picture or pictures of around Burlington or of Burlington residents out and about.

Today's Patch Snap is from the Burlington Town Election and features the longest-serving member on Town Meeting.

Joan B. Hastings of Precinct 4 has been continuously serving on Town Meeting since its adoption in 1972. To honor her 40 years of service Town Clerk Amy Warfield had a plaque made featuring the election results from Hastings' first year voted into her seat. Hastings (left) and Warfield are pictured above with the plaque at the Burlington Town Election, where Hastings was also volunteering to help run the election.

Hastings was seat again this year with 267 votes, the second highest in the precinct.

Hastings said she first ran and won her seat shortly after moving to Burlington.

"I had just moved in and I wanted to get involved and do my civic duty," she said. "I still enjoy being a member. The town has been good to myself and my family and I like to give back."

Hastings said others should run for Town Meeting or get involved in some way in the community.

Opening in Town Meeting:

For those who would like to get involved and live in Precincts 2, 5 or 7, here is a reminder from earlier this week on current open seats: 

Town Clerk Amy Warfield said this week that there are vacancies in three Town Meeting precincts that need to be filled and the town will hold a meeting of for anyone nominated by a sitting member for the purpose of filling the seats on Monday April, 30 at 6:30 p.m. at the .

Warfield said that Precinct 2 has two vacancies, Precinct 5 has one vacancy and Precinct 7 has two open seats. In order for a resident of one of those districts to be considered for the seat, he or she must be nominated by a current Town Meeting members. Anyone interested in contacting a member from their precinct can find the complete list with contact information in the attached PDF (at right) provided by the Town Clerk's office.

Once people are nominated by a Town Meeting member they should come to the April 30 meeting. Town Meeting members of their precinct will vote to appoint those interested to one of the open seats. The appointment will be for one year, Warfield said, and then all appointed members will have to be on the official ballot in 2013 if they wish to run to maintain the seat.

In Precincts 2 and 5, Warfield said, the open seats are a result of not enough people running to be on the ballot during last Saturday's . The two seats in Precinct 7 belonged to John Kelly and Barbara L'Heureux, both of whom were elected last Saturday to the Planning Board.

There was also a tie among write-in candidates for other seats in Precinct 7. Warfield said other Town Meeting members in Precinct 7 will vote on who fills those positions but since there were write-in candidates they are not open for the process described above.