AMESBURY — Voters last night decided to shorten Amesbury's official name and turned down the option to add fluoride to the town's water supply in a split decision on the two questions placed on the election ballot.
Question 1, which alters the town's 15-year-old charter and sheds Amesbury of its town designation, passed in five of the six districts. Unofficially, Question 1 received 54 percent of the votes (1,585) while 46 percent (1,360) voted against it. Only in District 2 did a majority of residents vote against it.
While the 1996 charter established a city form of government with a mayor and Municipal Council replacing Town Meeting and a selectman-based government, Amesbury's official name continued to be the city known as the Town of Amesbury.
But pending approval from the state, Amesbury will officially be known as a city.
"I'm pleased that it passed; It will be helpful as we compete for access in the state and federal level," Mayor Thatcher Kezer said last night, referring to securing state and federal funding.
"It makes it simple and straight-forward," Kezer continued. "It labels what we have been for the last 16 years and we'll still be the wonderful quaint community that we are."
Longtime Amesbury resident Bill Parker, wearing an Amesbury Townie Hat outside the Town Hall polls yesterday, said he supported the name change as well.
"We got enough mismatch names, the city known as the town of Amesbury, it's awkward," Parker said.
Other changes to the charter, which is essentially the rules and regulations of Amesbury's government, lengthen the time the Municipal Council would have to approve certain appointments or removals made by the mayor from 15 to 21 days. The revised charter would also mean that any measure vetoed by the mayor and not reconsidered by the council would be considered rejected in 21 days as opposed to the current 10 days.
The method for filling council vacancies would also change. Under the proposal, the candidate with the next highest vote tally for the same election at which the councilor stepping down was elected would step into the seat. The candidate taking the seat, however, must have received at least 30 percent of the vote.
The charter vote wasn't nearly as close in the second ballot question: Shall the public water supply for domestic use in the Town of Amesbury continue to be fluoridated?
More voters in every district said they didn't want Amesbury to add fluoride to its water. In all, 55 percent, or 1,677 residents, voted against Question 1, while 45 percent, or 1,352, voted in favor.
The town has been adding sodium fluoride to its water since 1967, when residents voted in support of the measure. But in recent years, the practice has been questioned due to the quality of fluoride bought from low-bid providers.
Since then, health officials have been planning for the day when sodium fluoride can once again be added to the water supply. The town's water system is being retrofitted to avoid clogs, and officials sought a more reliable supplier of the chemical.
With that in mind, the Board of Health requested that the fluoride issue be brought back before voters. Only five people attended an Oct. 20 public hearing on the issue at Town Hall auditorium. At the meeting, the Board of Health voted 3 to 1 to recommend a "yes" vote on the ballot question.
Among those leading the charge against Question 2 was Greenwood Street resident Christopher Martel, one of the five people in attendance at the Oct. 20 public hearing. Last week Martel said he was concerned that the town was not giving residents a choice in the matter and also said that adding fluoride isn't necessary to improving water quality.
"I feel great. It was 17 days since we found out it was going to be on the ballot and we worked hard every day," Martel said last night. "Sometimes you're called upon to do something and that someone needed to step up."
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