No new candidates for Barnesville election

Ballot includes incumbents Brown, Fedders and Menke

‘‘If there’s only three people running, then that must mean we’re doing pretty good,” Brown said Monday.

Commissioners in Barnesville, population 165, serve two-year terms and meet once a month to discuss town affairs.

Menke, 65, has served on the three-person commission for 32 years and has been president for the last six, while Brown, 47, has held her position for 14 years.

Fedders, 38, is the relative newcomer with just one term under his belt.

‘‘I’ve enjoyed the last two years,” he said last week. ‘‘I feel like I’ve done good things for the town and I want to keep on doing them.”

The two main issues currently facing Barnesville are development and the commuters that speed through town, he said.

‘‘People in the town are very serious about certain issues, such as maintaining the integrity of the town and the low-key atmosphere,” said Pete Menke, an athletic director at Paul VI Catholic High School in Fairfax, Va.

The town has so far been successful in achieving this goal, as only two new homes have been built in Barnesville in the last 10 years, he said.

‘‘We don’t have to have a home on every vacant lot,” he said.

Commissioners also work on town beautification and are discussing creating a local park, Fedders said.

Though most of the town’s elections are uncontested, Barnesville’s voter turnout rate is usually high, Fedders said.

The turnout rate for the last election was 70 percent, said town clerk and Menke’s wife, Patty Menke.

The Menkes have four grown children while Brown, a third-grade teacher at Monocacy Elementary School in Dickerson, has three children with her husband, Clark. Fedders, 38, is a sales executive with Siemens Building Technologies in Gaithersburg and has two children with his wife, Lisa.

The election is 5-8 p.m. May 7 at Barnesville’s Town Hall, located at 18001 Barnesville Road.

It will be the second time in recent years that the town has had elections in its historic Town Hall, which is being renovated, Menke said. Previous elections were in a garage belonging to Barnesville residents Margery and Bob Lillard.

If it’s a nice night, most residents walk to the election site to cast their votes, Fedders said.

‘‘It’s really an event,” he said. ‘‘You get a chance to walk and see people and make an evening out of it.”

Anyone aged 18 years or older who has been a resident of Barnesville for at least six months may cast their ballot in a decades-old Capital Perfectos cigar box, a long-standing town tradition.

Once elected, the commissioners will select a president, known informally as the town’s mayor.

Election Day

Vote for Barnesville commissioners 5-8 p.m. May 7 in Barnesville’s Town Hall, 18001 Barnesville Road.