The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
Council election goes to recount
EAST HAMPTON — A recount will be necessary to determine which party — Democratic or Republican — controls the Town Council.
Twelve votes separate Republican Tim Feegel and Democrat Alan Hurst for the seventh and last seat on the council, 1,315 for Feegle and 1,303 for Hurst.
Town officials were working Wednesday to determine when the recount will take place. In the meantime, the remainder of officials elected in Tuesday’s voting were scheduled to be sworn in Wednesday night.
Incumbent Democrats Kevin Reich (1,831 votes) and James “Pete” Brown (1,609) were re-elected to the council, as were incumbent Republicans Melissa Engel (1,551), Mark Philhower (1,519) and Josh Piteo (1,379).
Former state senator Dean Markham, a Democrat who also served on the Board of Finance, was elected to the council with a vote total of 1,465.
The recount will determine who control the council, Engle and the Republicans, or Reich, a former assistant superintendent of schools and the Democrats.
Philhower served on the present council but had not intended to run again. But then, when Councilor Ted Hintz Jr. withdrew as a candidate for re-election, Philhower stepped forward and ran in his stead.
Philhower said he could not leave the GOP in a lurch following Hintz’s withdrawal. “Besides,” he joked, “we need one real conservative on the council!”
Meanwhile, Ted Turner was returned to the Board of Finance, which he had previously chaired. Joining him will be former Town Council Chairwoman Barbara Moore.
Both Moore and Turner are Democrats, as is Richard Brown, who was elected to the board along with incumbent Republican Alannah Coshow.
Board of Education Chairman Christopher Goff and incumbent Republican member Jeffrey Carlson were both returned to the board. Goff, a Democrat, emerged as the highest vote getter of any candidate in any race in town Tuesday, with 2,309 votes.
The current chairman of the Board of Finance, Marc Lambert, a Republican, was elected to the school board, as was Democrat Lori Caldwell.