Clerk makes re-election bid

By Matthew Bernat
Turley Publications Reporter

STURBRIDGE –Twenty-seven special town meetings, 19 state elections, 12 annual town meetings and one election recount are just some of the numbers on the town clerk’s lengthy record.
Now, after more than a decade of service, Town Clerk Lorraine Murawski seeks re-election to the post she earned in 1998. Murawski has a challenger this year in Susan G. Murphy, who recently announced her candidacy.
The contested race adds a wrinkle to the election process. Murawski, who as clerk is charged with overseeing the balloting, will not perform her duties for this election. To comply with State Ethics Law the assistant town clerk will handle the April vote.
“Serving as your Town Clerk and recognizing the importance of complete transparency, I felt it important to inform you of the status of my role in this election,” Murawski wrote in a statement.
To learn nuances like that one for regulations pertaining to elections, vital statistics, campaign finance and other public records, Murawski has taken many classes on those subjects through the years to stay up-to-date.
During her tenure, she has passed tests and taken exams to further her knowledge of the post. Murawski is a Certified Massachusetts Municipal Clerk, a title she earned by passing a test drafted by the Massachusetts Town Clerk’s Association.
In 2006, she became a Master Municipal Clerk, which is the highest certification a town clerk can receive. Murawski is also a Justice of the Peace and Notary Public, having applied for the latter position on her own, paying the related costs out of pocket, in order to offer residents notary services, she said.
Other work includes a stint on the board of directors of the Massachusetts Town Clerks Association for seven years. Murawski is currently a member of that association having joined upon her election.
In her time as clerk one incident that stands out was being notified by the United States Marine Corp that 23-year-old resident and 1st Lieutenant Joshua Booth had been killed in Iraq in October 2006.
Locally, when the veteran’s agent is away the town clerk acts in that position. Because of that it became Murawski’s duty to contact Booth’s parents. In the ensuing months Murawski arranged to have donations, supplies and money sent as care packages to Booth’s platoon at the request of his parents.
In December 2006, Murawski and Veteran’s Agent Thomas Chamberland co-chaired a memorial service for Booth at the high school.
“It was a ‘community’ at its best,” Murawski said in a statement on her campaign’s Web site: http://www.lorrainemurawski.com. More information on Murawski can be found there.
The town election will be Monday, April 12 from 7 a.m. – 8 p.m. Voting will take place in Burgess Elementary School’s south gymnasium.