Link added for all candidates including those for town meeting. Click “Read more” for the link.

When the clock struck 5:00 yesterday afternoon the following candidates had submitted their nomination papers. These papers are being reviewed by the Town Clerk’s office and if signatures are in order (candidates for town wide office require 50 signatures) they will be on the ballot for the election on April 30. There were some surprises.

The biggest surprise was a contest for Planning Board. Todd Hamilton will challenge incumbent Alex Whiteside. There are also key races for Selectmen and School Committee. In the Selectman’s race incumbent Bob Sweeney is being challenged by Katie Conlon. For School Committee there are two seats. Becky Padera is up. She was appointed to serve out Denis Keohane’s term. Keohane stepped down when he was elected to the Board of Selectmen. Also Glenn Pavlicek is resigning from the board. Padera is vying along with Bob Hiss and Mike Zullas for the two available seats.

There are also contests for Housing Authority and Cemetery Trustee. And lastly Constable which has a surprising 7 candidates for 4 seats. Here are the candidates. Incumbents are denoted with an asterisk. You can view a complete list of all candidates including a list of town meeting member candidates courtesy of the Town Clerk’s office here.

There are also contests for Town Meeting Members. Precinct 4 is only precinct without a sufficient number of candidates. They have 10 candidates for 11 seats opening up opportunity for a write-in.

• Precinct 2: 15 candidates for 11 spots
• Precinct 5: 10 candidates for 9 spots
• Precinct 8: 13 candidates for 10 spots
• Precinct 9: 12 candidates for 10 spots
• Precinct 10: 9 candidates for 6 spots