TRURO — Caitlin Townsend, 23, was elected on Tuesday to a five-year term on the planning board in the only contested race in the annual town election. She outpolled Steve Stahl 457 to 205 in unofficial results released Wednesday around 1 a.m.
A total of 673 ballots were cast, representing 32 percent of Truro’s 2,075 registered voters. The turnout was more than three times last year’s 207 voters, or 10 percent.
A Proposition 2½ override that will permanently raise the town’s levy limit by $355,763 was approved on Tuesday by a vote of 453 to 201. The override will fund the hiring of four new full-time firefighter-paramedics.
A majority of voters also checked “yes” on a public advisory question calling upon Holtec, the company tasked with decommissioning the Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station, to “immediately withdraw any plans to dump any radioactive water into Cape Cod Bay.” On this question, 610 were in favor, 48 were against, and 15 left the question blank.
In uncontested races, Bob Weinstein and Sue Areson, two incumbent select board members, secured three more years on the board. Peter James Thomas Cook and Rachel Rowland will serve three-year terms on the school committee, Frank M. Grande will join the cemetery commission, and Kevin Grunwald was re-elected to the housing authority for another five years.
