Middleboro and Lakeville residents have nominated themselves for a variety of elected positions in both of their respective towns. The deadline for candidates for local office to submit their nomination papers is Friday, Feb. 16 in Middleboro. The deadline in Lakeville has already passed and was on Monday, Feb. 12.

Lakeville’s town election is scheduled for Monday, April 1. Middleboro’s town election is scheduled for Saturday, April 6.

Select Board

There are three open seats on the Lakeville Select Board in this year’s election. Two of the current select board members, Brian Day and Lia Fabian, are not up for reelection this year. The third select board member, Lorraine Carboni, is up for reelection. This year, the Lakeville Select Board will be expanding from three members to five members, which is why there are three seats on the select board available. 

Carboni is running for reelection and has returned nomination papers for a select board position.

Brynna Donahue, Mark Knox and Maureen Candito have all also returned nomination papers for select board positions. Derek Maksy also took out nomination papers, but said that he had since decided not to run for the position.

Knox currently is a member of the Lakeville Conservation Commission and the Chair of the Lakeville Planning Board. He said that if elected, he hopes “to stop property taxes from rising while ensuring quality hires at key administrative positions.” Knox added that he is an “experienced licensed Construction Supervisor” and that he believed his experience in construction would be helpful if Lakeville decided to build a new fire station.  

This year, the election for Lakeville Select Board seats will be decided upon using ranked choice voting. Ranked choice voting is a system where voters rank the candidates they would like to appoint to office. The three most popular select board candidates will then be appointed to the select board after the votes are tallied.

In Middleboro, there are two open seats on the Select Board. One seat, which is currently held by Select Board Member Neil Rosenthal, is a three-year position. The second seat, which is currently vacant, is a one year position. Rosenthal announced that he would retire from the Middleboro Select Board at a Jan. 8 Select Board meeting.

Two candidates have submitted nomination papers for the three-year Select Board seat: Jane Slavin and Teresa Kelly Farley. One candidate has submitted nomination papers for the one year Select Board seat: William C. Pike, Jr. 

Farley said that, if elected, she hopes “to continue the tradition of strong leadership in town and give people a voice.” She lives in Middleboro with her husband and three children, and had previously served on the Middleboro Finance and School Committees.

Pike said that he was running for Select Board “to make sure Middleboro is an affordable, safe and enjoyable place where you can live, do business and grow a family.” He currently is the chair of the Middleboro Finance Committee.

School Committee

There are two three-year open positions on the Freetown Lakeville School Committee available to Lakeville residents. There is also an open position on the school committee for Freetown residents. Stephen M. Owen and Donahue are the two incumbent school committee members whose seats are up for election; neither have taken out nomination papers to run for reelection to the school committee.

Crystal L. Ng and Carolina Hernandez have submitted nomination papers to run for the two school committee seats.

Ng currently serves on the Lakeville Agricultural Committee. She said that she would bring a “different perspective” to the school committee because she has “children in general education as well as special education” and because she has experience as a foster parent. If elected, issues she hopes to address while on the Committee include “transparency, why are so many families leaving the district, bullying and safety issues.”

Hernandez said that if elected, she plans to focus on improving the district’s statewide education scores. “I believe that new strategies can be implemented to improve the current rating,” she said. She added that “my job is to be part of a larger initiative to improve the public school system.”

There are also two three-year open positions on the Middleboro School Committee. Ezekiel Adams Lewis, a current member of the school committee, has obtained nomination papers to run for reelection to the school committee but has not submitted those nomination papers. The other incumbent, Richard J. Young, has not taken out nomination papers to run for reelection.

Three other candidates — Rebecca Anne Hopkins, Shannon Marie Breen and Susan W. Pennini — have also taken out nomination papers to run for a school committee seat in Middleboro, but none of the three candidates have returned nomination papers as of Feb. 9.

Other committees and positions

In Lakeville, there are two open positions on the Cemetery Commission, three open positions on the Finance Committee, two open positions on the Planning Board and one open position each for the Board of Assessors, Board of Health, Library Trustee, Town Moderator and Park Commissioner. 

In Middleboro, there is one open position on the Planning Board, two open positions on the Gas and Electric Commission, one open town Moderator position, one open position on the Board of Assessors, one open position on the Housing Authority, two open positions on the Parks Commission and two open positions on the Finance Committee.