Five residents seek two council seats
by Geoff Fox
Hancock councilman Tim Smith has resigned his seat on the town council in order to run for mayor in this year’s municipal election. He will be running against former councilman Levi Little for the post. Mayor Ralph Salvagno is not running for re-election.
The Town of Hancock will be holding the municipal election on Monday, April 19, and the candidates who intend to run for two council seats and mayor have filed for office.
Five people have filed to run for the two seats currently held by Tim Boyer and Leo Murray.
Both Boyer and Murray are running to keep their seats on council. Joining the incumbents are Misty Cubbage, Preston Hall, and David Kerns. Hall and Kerns have run for council in past elections.
Both mayoral candidates have the experience of serving on Hancock’s town council.
Tim Smith unsuccessfully ran for mayor in 2013, finishing third to incumbent Dan Murphy and the late Nigel Dardar. He has served on the council for several terms.
Little was elected to the Hancock council in 2015 and served a full term, but lost his re-election bid in 2019.
An empty seat on council
Town officials will be holding a special virtual town meeting tonight, Wednesday, February 24, at 7 p.m. to appoint a new town council member to replace Smith.
According to the Hancock town charter, Smith was required resign from his seat as councilman as “no elected officer of the town, except elected officers running for re-election, shall be a candidate or nominee for election to any town public office unless he or she shall have first resigned from his/her then office.”
In a text message on Monday, Smith confirmed he resigned from council on Thursday, February 18, “for the purpose of running for mayor.”
Register to vote by March 25
Town residents have until March 25 to register to vote in the municipal election.