I completely missed the referendum, way at the bottom of the back page, darn!

I gave a write-in answer for the referendum question, is that allowed? ;)

(and it was definitely easy to miss hiding down there at the bottom)

I should have just voted for my dog. What a horrible turnout. Chelmsford... slowly dying.

Election results say it all! NIce results Chelmsford residents and proud to be one!!!!

Well informed electorate. How sweet it is.

How many people voted in total?

Krista, thanks for keeping us up to date with the live blog, great idea! It was wonderful for those of us that were at home with young kids and couldn't be at Town Hall. Appreciate it!

I almost missed the fire station referendum, too. Almost.

And in parting may I say... Happy Days are here again. The skies above are clear again. Let us sing a song of Cheer again. HAPPY DAYS ARE HERE AGAIN!!

Congratulations to Babara Skaar for running a campaign to give voters in a democracy a choice. I would venture to guess that this is the most write-in votes -1654- that a last minute write- in candidate has ever gotten in this town, percentage and total, against an encumbent.

regarding the poll workers: They reminded people to turn over the ballot as there was a backside. No one pointed that I am aware of pointed directly to the fires station. They have been doing this a long time

I think that pointing out that there was a question at the bottom of the backside was more courtesey than campaigning. Each voter had their own opportunity to decide if they wanted to vote yes or no or leave it blank in the privacy of the voting booth. In other elections I have been reminded of questions on the backside and I never saw it as anything but a friendly reminder. Personally, I think everyone is so afraid of alterior motives that we've lost the ability to step back and say "thanks" to the poll workers.

I would expect of that 22% with no answer on the fire station, that most of them were "didn't see the question" rather than "I don't want to express an opinion."

I definitely wanted to mark my opinion on the fire station, but it wasn't topmost in my mind; I had a lot of candidates to mark for my precinct, and some of my deciding was done right at the voting booth. It wasn't until I was on my way home that I realized I hadn't seen it (although the poll worker did point out that the ballot had two sides) and looked at the sample ballot online to see where the heck the question was. I don't know why it wasn't in one of the columns just like the rest of the ballot items.

Andrew:Teachers' unions, teachers, whether they are from this town or not , have the right to campaign and support whatever candidate they choose. Something undemocratic about " outsiders" supporting their candidate? People have to prove they are from Chelmsford to be there? If a teacher teaches in Chelmsford but resides elsewhere does not ban them from democratic participation. You check their IDs to see their residences? Every candidate had their poll workers outside, everyone. Literature is handed out in all elections, all over the State. I was at Precincts 9/1 &7/8 parts of the day- no one was forcing themselves on anyone. " Malicious intent of the teachers to get cards into the voting booths"is psycho talk. "Education is not about unions"? Unions ARE teachers. Who do you think teaches the kids? Unpaid robots? " Don't become a teacher to become rich"- more psycho talk. Teaching is a paid profession conducted by college graduates with proven classroom records for achievement,no one takes issue with. If the " we don't need to pay the teachers" mentality continues to be a trend, the good teachers will eventually leave for other districts and we will get the bottom of the barrell. Fortunately the majority of the SC, Town Mgr, and Finance Committee all recommended a 2% raise. At least you don't hide your anti-union bias. One thing I learned in the private sector- pay the help, white boards and 'technology" don't teach.

Why is it that we keep spending more and more. In this tough economy, we did not need to spend more building a new fire station. I live in a 3 bedroom house and I am paying over $9000 dollars in taxes. I am sorry but enough is enough.!! Wake up everyone. My house is only 2200 square feet. Not a mansion by any means. WHY??? FOr those who keep voting on spending for all these unecessary projects, feel free to pay the taxes for us also. I work for in small government and there is so much waste... please wake up people and lets cut spending.

John and can I ask you for your solution to the serious issues with the current firestation would have been? Do you know how the new station is being funded? did you attend all or some of the meetings ( public input session or Town meeting where you could have spoke up and presented your solution) Where and why did you not speak up in public at any of these sessions. After the fact is too late. Why do you feel there is no need to build or even rehab the old station. Did you take a tour of the current station and see the condition of the load bearing walls that have major structural defects, some defects so large you can see right throut the wall to the outside?