Bette Ann Chatterton Re-Elected In St. Martins

Bette Ann Chatterton has been elected for a third term as mayor in the village of St. Martins.

Unofficial results from Elections New Brunswick show Chatterton beat candidate Steven McPhee by a mere 13 votes.

The mayor-elect said she has a number of ongoing priorities for the village over the next four years.

“Right now, we’re hopefully finishing up a project we’ve been working on for the past four years and that’s a refurbishment of the harbour park,” Chatterton said.

Work to replace the Vaughan Creek covered bridge a two-lane replica of the original bridge is also expected to begin later this fall.

“The traffic with the Fundy Trail is really a lot for a small village to handle, so with two-way traffic down at that harbour, that would make a big difference,” said Chatterton.

Chatterton said she is pleased with the voter turnout for this year’s municipal election. Nearly 67 per cent of the 239 eligible voters in the village cast a ballot.

The four councillor-elects include incumbent Jason Garnett and newcomers Marianne Langille and Mark Gallagher.

“It’s always nice to have a female on council, I think I’ve never been there that we had one so I’m looking forward to that,” said Chatterton. “Marianne and Mark will bring lots of expertise to council and I’m sure they have some things that they’re specifically interested in bringing forward and working on.”

“Jason, of course, a lot of things that happened in this village over the past years that Jason’s been on council would never have happened if it hadn’t been for Jason’s behind-the-scenes hard work. He’s a dedicated councillor and he deserves a lot of credit.”

Both the mayoral and council results could be subject to a recount if one is requested by a non-elected candidate.

Elections New Brunswick says candidates who are not elected can request a recount if there is a difference of 25 votes or less between a candidate declared elected and a candidate who was not elected.

In the case of council, fourth-place candidate Shawn Stoneham and fifth-place candidate Preston MacDonald fell within 25 votes of Gallagher.

You can find the full list of results through Elections New Brunswick’s website.