Abington Voters Back SST School Funding, Charter Amendments

ABINGTON - April 26 - Abington voters have given the green light to a debt exclusion that will fund the town's portion of building the South Shore Regional Technical School. The measure passed 305 to 151 in Saturday's election.

This vote follows a January decision by the nine member towns to approve the new school project. Each town needs to cover its share of the construction costs, as Abington did with this debt exclusion.

Residents also showed strong support for amendments to the town charter, with 344 voting in favor and 104 against.

The approved changes to the Town Charter include encouraging additional training for elected and appointed committee members, enhancing public engagement and board transparency, and clarifying board rules and minute-keeping procedures. The process for filling vacancies on elected and appointed boards and committees has been clarified, and new board members are to receive onboarding packages.

The qualifications for Town Manager candidates have been amended to allow for professional experience as a substitute for a college degree, and the Town Manager is explicitly tasked with enforcing the Town Charter. Additionally, the budget process has been updated, references to the "Board of Selectmen" have been replaced with "Selectboard," and police department hiring will be removed from Civil Service.

In the only contested race, Amanda Hunter edged out incumbent water commissioner John Tassinari Jr. by a slim margin of seven votes, 211 to 204, for a one-year term.

Incumbent Selectman Amanda Zompetti secured her reelection with 361 votes in an uncontested race. Caroline Ellis won an open seat on the School Committee in an uncontested race.

Other unopposed winners include Ann Welch for assessor, Joseph Shea for a two-year assessor term, and Aaron Christian and Katherine VanNest for the Board of Health. Carol Dolan won an open one-year seat on the Board of Health.

With so few competitive races, the election saw only 466 ballots cast.

Results first reported by WATD.