MARBLEHEAD — Board of Selectmen candidates have mixed feelings about how long a person should serve in an elected position.
“The current board, minus one, has been on the board for years,” said John Odlin Liming, a challenger in the Board of Selectmen race. “I believe our forefathers put together this government with a term limit so other people could get involved. Democracy needs to be revisited in Marblehead. People need to go to Town Meeting. For a couple town meetings, we’ve barely even had a quorum.”
Liming, who suggested a term limit of a decade, has served on the board in the past. He ran for an open seat last year but was not elected.
At a forum hosted by the Marblehead League of Women Voters at Marblehead High School Monday night, the incumbent selectmen disagreed.
“We had a situation not long ago when one of our members was not reelected,” said selectman Harry Christensen, who has served on board for more than two decades. “That’s a term limit. If you don’t like what they’re doing, don’t vote for them. We have term limits already. Don’t vote for somebody who you don’t want to serve on this board.”
The other incumbents agreed.
Christensen has lived in Marblehead for his entire life, with the exception of the years he spent in the U.S. Marine Corps. He was badly wounded in Vietnam, returned home, and returned to school to earn a bachelor’s, master’s, and law degree. He works at a law firm in town alongside his son, he said.
“We do a good job,” he said of the current selectmen. “The five of us work well as a team.”
Jackie Belf-Becker, Mark Moses Grader, Judith Jacobi, and James Nye are also running for re-election. Nye did not attend the forum.
Belf-Becker, an attorney who has lived in Marblehead for more than four decades, is running for her 14th term on the board. Nye, the president and CEO of National Grand Bank Marblehead, was first elected in 2005, and Jacobi has served since 2000.
Grader was elected last year. He spent nine years on the town’s Finance Committee and was chairman for five.
The candidates were asked their opinion on the closure of the Gerry Elementary School building, the importance of finding the right fit for the next town administrator, and the proposed investment of nearly $9 million in improvements to Abbot Hall, which will go before Town Meeting in May.
“We have two choices — one let it fall down or fix it,” said Christensen.
Since 1979, the town has spent more than $1 million on maintenance for the building, said Jacobi.
“But now it is structurally so unsound,” she said. “It is a major project that I fully support.”
Liming argued that $9 million seemed like a lot of money to spend on one building and that other things need to be taken care of before a rehab of a building.
The article on the Town Meeting warrant currently calls for the repair and restoration of the entire building, besides the clock tower, which was completed less than five years ago, said Belf-Becker.
“It’s a lot of money, we all are aware of that, but we’re not spending money foolishly,” she said.
Luisa Boverini, Sarah Fox, and Meagan Taylor are each running for one three-year term on the school committee. Sarah Gold and Brenda Kin are competing for one two-year term. Boverini did not attend the debate because of a death in her family.
Rose Ann Wheeler McCarthy and Janet Merrill are running for a seat on the town’s Cemetery Commission. Daniel Albert, Michael Maccario, and Karl Johnson are running for the Light Commission.