With one exception, Saturday marked the end of the voting and Town Meeting cycle in the towns served by the Monadnock Ledger-Transcript. 

Residents chose their town and school district officials, keeping some and removing others, and also passed judgments – sometimes including amendments — on budgets, additional spending items, zoning regulations and other town business.

In Wilton, Town Meeting chose to keep Town Meeting, deciding not to switch to an SB2 system with its deliberative session and ballot voting and instead guaranteeing that residents will meet for the 261st time to do the town’s business next year.

Meanwhile, administrators at the Jaffrey-Rindge schools are going to have to make some difficult decisions, as voter rejection of the district’s $27.5 million budget plan will force the district to work within the $26.9 million default budget. The cuts likely will be painful.

Now, it’s time to put those decisions into practice. Of course, many of those same people implementing those decisions are the ones who were elected last week. Residents have placed their trust in them, and now it’s time for them to prove themselves worthy of it. Some of them may be back on the ballot next year, while others have several years to prove themselves, but roughly this time next year, residents will do it all over again, deciding on town and district matters and the people they want to be responsible for them.

We thank those who ran for office for their time and effort, and salute those leaving town office for their service. A healthy democracy requires people to actively participate and take responsibility for government. It needs those who are willing to put themselves and their ideas in front of the voters, hold office and  make sometimes difficult decisions.

As for Peterborough, the one town that didn’t fully participate – although its residents took part in elections for ConVal school district budget items and school board members – Wednesday, March 23 is the first day for candidates to file declarations of their candidacy, and the last day is Friday, April 1.

The town’s deliberative session is Tuesday, April 5, with the ballot session and elections Tuesday, May 10 and the open ses sion of Town Meeting the next day.