Brimfield residents voted during Monday's town election not to adopt the state's Community Preservation Act.
BRIMFIELD -- For the third time in the past three years voters in Monday's town election rejected local adoption of the state's Community Preservation program, which uses a combination of state and town funds for grants for historic preservation, open space protection, recration and community housing.
The vote against adopting the Community Preservation Act was 235-124.
Opponents of bringing the Community Preservation provisions to Brimfield argued that this is not a time for another tax on property ownes.
Community Preservation projects are funded with money in a state account combined with funds raises through a surtax on local property taxes.
Proponents of local adoption had argued that Community Preservation would be good for Brimfield because the funds could be used for grants to protect parks and other open spaces as well as some of the town's many historic buildings, but opponents said that Brimfield already has plenty of park land within the town limits.
The question came before voters in Monday's town election because supporters had submitted petitions with 164 valid signatures.
A similar attempt to bring the Community Preservation provisions to Brimfield failed when it was defeated at the May 16 annual Town Meeting.
In 2008 local adoption of Community Preservation had support from the Board of Selectmen and the Town Meeting, but it was defeated when placed on the general election ballot that year.
Most town offices up for election this year were uncontested on Monday's ballot but there were contests for town moderator and cemetery commissioner.
For the second time in two years, incumbent Town Moderator Michael Miller held off a challenge for his position from Rev. Ian Lynch.
The vote in Monday's election was 208 for Miller and 143 for Lynch.
Incumbent Cemetery Commissioner Phillips Carpenter was re-elected to his position when he defeated challenger Stephen Phifer by a vote of 178-169.
Ellamae Shoum was re-elected to the Brimfield Housing Authority with four votes.
Shoum was not available during the town nominating process, Town Clerk Pamela E. Beall said, and there were no names on the ballot for her position.
The turnout for Monday's election was 371 voters, which is about 15 percent of the town's registered voters, Beall said.
She said she had been hoping for a better turnout but the 15 percent was better than for some previous Brimfield elections and better than some other towns did this year.
Communications were difficult in Brimfield in the days leading up to the election because electricity, telephone service, cable television and Internet services were disrupted by the tornadoes that swept through town June 1, and more than 100 homes were damaged and dozens were destroyed.