North Stonington Democrats endorse Urgo for first selectman
North Stonington — The Democratic Town Committee has endorsed Michael Urgo, chairman of the town's School Modernization Building Committee, as its candidate for the first selectman job during the committee's caucus on Tuesday night.
Urgo, also led the school project committee's precursor, which studied and presented the plan to renovate the town's two schools. That plan was approved during a May 2016 referendum.
Previously, Urgo served on the finance board, where he was the liaison to the school board and founded NoStoFest, a townwide fair held last year.
His insurance business, The Urgo Agency, opened in March in North Stonington.
Current First Selectman Shawn Murphy announced in the spring that he would not be seeking re-election in November.
Urgo said he thought about affiliating with a political party but decided to remain unaffiliated because he "hopes to work with everyone."
Current Selectman Mark Donahue, also the chairman of the Democratic Town Committee, said it was the first time in his memory that the committee had endorsed an unaffiliated candidate for the first selectman job.
Donahue was endorsed for the position of town treasurer. With longtime First Selectman Nicholas Mullane also indicating he won't be running for a seat on the board, Donahue said there will be a lack of experience on the Board of Selectmen. By running for treasurer, he said, he can "participate and work with the Board of Selectmen ... and deal with financial issues" while bringing his experience to the table.
Donahue himself will not be seeking re-election as a selectman due to time constraints at his full-time job, and the caucus could not find anyone willing to run for the two other selectman seats.
Currently, the town treasurer is Robin Roohr, who also serves as the selectman's assistant.
For the four seats up for election on the town's Board of Education, Jennifer Raggon and incumbent David McCord were endorsed.
Michael Anderson was endorsed for a position on the Board of Finance and Julie Lanier was endorsed for a Board of Assessment Appeals seat.
Toula Balestracci and Lisa Wood were endorsed for the Economic Development Commission spot and Lisa Wood also was endorsed for the Planning and Zoning Commission.
The North Stonington Republican Town Committee will hold its caucus next week to endorse candidates.
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