Marlborough Voters Oust School Committee Incumbent, Elect Page and Irish to City Council

Marlborough voters swept in two new City Councilors, to Wards 2 and 5, and removed an incumbent School Committee member, in a municipal election Tuesday that drew modest turnout.

In the School Committee race, Michelle Bodin-Hettinger, Earl Geary and Denise Ryan were elected, while incumbent Mark Hediger failed to win another term.

Ryan, a political newcomer, drew the largest number of votes in that contest, with 2,042. She has served for the past two years as Kane School's PTO co-president. Bodin-Hettinger was re-elected with 1,892 votes, and Geary claimed 1,587, according to unofficial results. Hediger garnered 1,432 votes.

In the Ward 2 race for City Council, Robert Page was elected with 338 votes, to Paul Ferro's 296. For Page, this marks a return to the council after a 10-year absence. Ferro had beaten him twice before, he noted. Page had served as a councilor from 2001 to 2003. He's now retired, he said, and has plenty of time to devote to his new civic role.

"I'm thrilled," Page said Tuesday, at City Hall watching returns come in. "I'm glad to be back."

In Ward 5, John Irish was elected with 294 votes, while Carlos Valadares collected 183. Irish is a newcomer to Marlborough politics who works in Sudbury as an analyst in the assessor's office. This was his first run for elected office. He said he felt confident after seeing the results for Ward 5, precinct 1, which he carried by 20 votes. He lives in the Ward's other precinct.

Overall, the municipal election drew a 15.3 percent voter turnout.