Tisbury’s newest select board member is Christina Colarusso, the winner — by just six votes —of Tuesday’s three-way race for select board.
With 678 voters casting ballots at the town’s emergency services building on Spring street, Ms. Colarusso received 314 votes to incumbent Abbe Burt’s 308. The third candidate, MacAleer Schilcher, received 49 votes in the unofficial totals announced just after the polls closed at 8 p.m.
Tisbury voters also approved a ballot measure allowing the town to borrow its share of costs for the upcoming feasibility study at Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School.
Ms. Colarusso campaigned with friends and family members including her father, Al Colarusso, who was by her side when the polls closed. Ms. Burt, who narrowly defeated Ms. Colarusso in a January election to fulfill the last months of former select board member Larry Gomez’s term, told the Gazette she did not plan to contest the vote.
“They want a youthful person [and] I think that’s what the town got,” Ms. Burt said.
Ms. Colarusso, who works for the Martha’s Vineyard Airport, told the Gazette she hopes to encourage more young Tisbury residents and other diverse voices to take part in local government.
She will begin her three-year term with the next select board meeting, scheduled for 4 p.m. May 16 in the Katharine Cornell Theatre and online.
