Town Clerk Speaks at Winchester Rotary

For the last six years Mary Ellen Lannon has served as And over the past 18 months she has been the

But on Jan. 1, Lannon moved back to her former position in the clerk’s office as former Malden Mayor,

On Thursday, Lannon spoke at the Winchester Rotary to discuss her time as Town Manager and what residents can expect on this year’s ballot.

“I can’t measure the gratitude I have for the Board of Selectmen for giving me this opportunity,” Lannon said to the Rotarians. “It’s been a great experience running the community day-to-day. And the people have been so supportive. Overall, it was a good run, it was challenging and I learned a lot along the way.”

Now Lannon said she can focus on her position as Town Clerk and the 2012 elections.

“We have a perfect storm of changes,” Lannon said. “We have the federal census that comes out every 10 years and Winchester also shifted its precinct boundaries – seven out of the eight lines have shifted.”

According to Lannon, about 225 families were affected by the shift and will need to go to new polling places this year.

However, with the and the size of the Parkhurst school, precincts five and six will need to have different polling locations until the new school is built.

“It’s hard to fit 3,500 people in one place with all the parking restraints,” Lannon said. “We’re still debating where to put those precincts, but one option is the and another option would be to split them with five going to and six going to .”

The first election this year will be March 6 for the primaries.

The ballot for the town election, which will take place on Tuesday, March 27, will also be a little longer for residents. According to Lannon, since the district lines changed, the town charter states that every Town Meeting member must also be on the ballot.

“We’re going to ask residents to be patient as this could be a two to three page ballot,” Lannon said.

The town is also looking for poll workers. Lannon said that they need clerks and inspectors for the 2012 elections. There will be a training session and anyone interested should stop by the Clerk’s office.