Hay defeats Baker for Westminster select board
By Caitlyn Kelleher JOURNAL REPORTER

The newcomer to town politics, Nick Hay, beat Preston Baker in the race to fill the empty seat on the Board of Selectmen at the annual town election Tuesday.

Hay was sworn in by Town Clerk Denise MacAloney shortly after the results were announced in the gym of Westminster Elementary School.

"People who helped me to get in here want a new outlook," Hay said.

Hay, 26, beat Baker 475 to 422.

Hay said he expected the vote to be close but said he thinks it shows that the people of Westminster want "new ideas and a youthful energy."

Baker has served the town for more than two decades including a number of years on the Board of Selectmen before stepping down two years ago. Baker did not stay at the elementary school to hear the results announced.

"Preston Baker has been in there for 20 years and has done a lot of good things," Hay said of his opponent.

The two men competed to see who would fill the seat that Board Chairwoman Lorraine Emerson has held for the last six years.

Emerson had hoped to hold the seat through the upcoming town meeting on Tuesday, May 1, and thought she had an agreement from the two candidates that they would hold off getting sworn in until after that date. But after a seemingly tense discussion behind closed doors in the hall of the elementary school Hay was sworn in.

"(My supporters) would like to see me up there at town meeting," he said.

Hay said he knows this might affect his working relationship with the other two selectmen, John Fairbanks and Thomas O'Toole, who have worked on the budget and town meeting preparation with Emerson.

"I think it might be a bit of a rocky road here to start, but in the end, we are all here for the same reason," he said.

Fairbanks and Emerson both held signs and supported Baker during the election campaign.

MacAloney said the turnout of about 18 percent of the town's 5,129 registered voters was decent for a one-race ballot.