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Delavan board chair decided by 3 votes

DELAVAN TOWNSHIP — Town of Delavan board member Ryan Simons edged out incumbent Dorothy Burwell in the race for town board chairman.

Simons earned 638 votes compared to Burwell’s 635. Voters cast two write-in ballots, according to unofficial results posted online by the Walworth County Clerk’s Office.

Simons and Burwell have disagreed on several big issues throughout the last year in the township.

For example, Simons in September was one of three board members who voted to table plans for the 623-home Shodeen development, which has been a controversial issue in the township for several years.

Burwell voted against tabling plans.

In June, Simons was the only board member to vote against hiring the U.S. Department of Agriculture to capture and kill Canada geese from the town’s Community Park and other areas.

Simons in June tried to accept a proposal from the Lakeland Animal Welfare Society to organize volunteers to clean goose waste from the park. His motion failed from lack of a second, although Burwell has since been working with officials from Lakeland Shelter and the Humane Society of the United States to organize volunteer goose mitigation.

Simons, a realtor in Delavan, was elected to the Delavan Town Board in April 2009. It was his first publicly held office.

He is a member of the town’s lake committee.

Burwell, N4836 N. County O, Delavan, served as the town clerk from 1999 to 2001. She served on the Walworth County Board from 1997 to 2008.

She served on the county’s land conservation committee and has served on the Lake Comus Protection and Rehabilitation District and the Lauderdale Lakes Management District.

She was elected chairwoman in 2009.