The deadline to pick up nomination papers to run in the April 2 town election was Friday, Feb. 8, at 5 p.m.

Town Clerk Mary Ann Silva made it possible for last-minute aspiring candidates to throw their hats into the ring, if they chose to take on the incoming blizzard.

"Anyone wishing to venture out in this weather can obtain nomination papers from the Wareham Police Department until 5 p.m.," Silva announced Friday morning.

No one took the clerk up on that offer, Wareham Police Lt. Kevin Walsh confirmed.

Town offices closed at 12 p.m. on Friday, due to the blizzard predicted to wallop the area, and Governor Deval Patrick ordered everyone off the road at 4 p.m.

Candidates have until Tuesday, Feb. 12, at 5 p.m. to return papers -- complete with the signatures of 50 registered Wareham voters -- to the Town Clerk's office.

Here's a recap of what's happened thus far.

Board of Selectmen

Two three-year terms on the Board of Selectmen are up for grabs, as well as a one-year term created by the January resignation of Selectman Ellen Begley.

Incumbents Steve Holmes and Cara Winslow are seeking re-election. They are challenged by Frank DeFelice, who has also taken out papers for a three-year term on the Board of Assessors, and former-Selectman Patrick Tropeano.

Judith Whiteside, also a former Selectman, has taken out papers for the one-year seat.

DeFelice has run for a seat on the Board of Selectmen three times, and served several terms on the Board of Selectmen in Milton, N.H. He currently serves as a member of the Board of Health.

DeFelice initially pulled papers to run for the Board of Assessors because, according to him, he did not want to see the incumbent run unopposed.

When he discovered the incumbent wasn't running, he decided to run for a seat on the Board of Selectmen, and threw his support behind Board of Assessors candidate Roxanne Barboza. On Friday he filed papers with the Town Clerk's office to run for the Board of Selectmen.

"I said 'Roxanne just give me your papers and I’ll help you get them signed,'" said DeFelice.

DeFelice expressed dissatisfaction with the incumbents he is running against for the three-year selectman seat, and said he has some changes in mind if he's elected.

"The things that go in front of the selectmen…there’s no meat to the agenda. It’s Mickey Mouse stuff," said DeFelice.

Tropeano served on the board from 2002 to 2005, and served five-and-a-half years on the Finance Committee. He was chair of the Finance Committee for four of those years.

“The role of the Board of Selectmen is to hold department heads accountable, and provide leadership and guidance to them,” Tropeano said.  “We can’t micromanage, but we also can’t ignore mismanagement. We simply can’t afford ‘business as usual.’”

Tropeano also expressed concern about the number of lawsuits filed against the town, the budget, and “animosity between the School Committee and the Board of Selectmen.”

He said he wants to serve the town as a way of “giving back” after the community rallied around his family when two of his daughters were seriously injured in a 2010 car accident. One daughter required extensive surgeries and rehabilitation.

“This town was unbelievably generous to me and my family,” said Tropeano.

Holmes said he’s seen a lot of progress over the past three years, especially in terms of economic development, and he wants to help the town continue to make progress.

“I like the job. I’ve enjoyed the first three years,” said Holmes. “I think we’ve made some progress in town in a lot of different areas. There’s still work to be done, obviously. … I’d like the chance to continue.”

Winslow expressed concern about Wareham's children growing up and deciding to live and raise their families elsewhere.

“It’s easy to get caught up in the problem of the moment. It’s a lot more difficult to look down the line 20 years” and ask how the next generation will be affected, Winslow said.

Whiteside, whose name was Judith Montminy when she last served as Selectman, was first elected the board in the early 1980s, but resigned when the board appointed a Town Administrator she didn’t think was qualified for the job.

“The Board of Selectmen appointed a Town Administrator who had absolutely no qualifications. They didn’t advertise, they didn’t look around for the best candidate,” said Whiteside.

A year later, in 1985, she came to serve on the board again when four members of the incumbent board were ousted by a recall petition.

“People were disgusted and disappointed with the current Selectmen,” she said.

She has also served on the Finance Committee and worked as a commercial banker for 23 years, before becoming an English teacher at Wareham High School in 1999. She retired from teaching in June.

Whiteside said she thinks it’s important to build, “a sense of community so the selectmen and the School Committee don’t seem to be fighting over dollars. We all live in the same town.”

If elected to the one year term, Whiteside says she plans to “reassess” the situation when the term is up, and possibly run for a seat on the School Committee.

School Committee

Incumbent School Committee member Rhonda Veugen will be seeking another three-year term.

Veugen was first elected in 2010, and says she hopes to stick around and help the committee tackle some of the issues ahead of them.

"I think that there are many things that are in front of us. One, notably, is hiring the new superintendent," said Veugen. "Another is, we have a tough budget cycle going into this year…I want to be part of the solution."

Assessors

One three-year term is up for grabs on the Board of Assessors, which is vacated by Brenda Eckstrom. Roxanne Barboza and Frank DeFelice have pulled papers. If DeFelice wins a Selectmen seat, he will not be able to serve as an assessor, however.

Barboza worked her last day as an assistant in the Town Clerk’s office on Thursday, Jan. 31. She says she decided to make a run for a seat on the Board of Assessors because she is passionate about helping people.

"I think more citizens in Wareham need to come forward and share their thoughts, whether right or wrong," said Barboza.

Barboza, a Wareham native, has a Bachelor's degree in Business Administration from Eastern Nazarene College, and a Master's in Business Management from Florida Metropolitan University.

Town Moderator

Bill Whitehouse has pulled papers to run for the three-year Town Moderator seat, challenging incumbent Claire Smith.

"Bruce Savageau, Brenda Eckstrom and the Donahues were unseated three years ago by a group that did not campaign because they didn't have to. I'd already done it for them," argued Whitehouse, who runs local blog site WarehamWater.com, formerly known as WarehamObserver.com.

As a consequence, Whitehouse says, nothing fundamentally changed.

"Actually," the 58-year-old added, "talk to anyone on the town's Finance Committee and you'll hear Wareham's situation is much worse."

Whitehouse said he's determined to restore Town Meeting to its original five word mission: "To Know The Town's Mind."

If re-elected, Smith said she expects this to be her last term serving as Town Moderator, if she is re-elected. “I’m going to give it one more term,” she said.

Wareham has lost a number of town employees recently, and Smith says she hopes to retain the position in order to maintain some consistency in Wareham.

“The town has had so much change over the last year," Smith said. "We need something that’s constant."

Housing Authority

One five-year term on the Wareham Housing Authority will be on the ballot. Robert Powilatis is seeking the position.

Powilatis served as the First Deputy State Auditor, retiring from the position in 2002. He stayed on as a consultant to the office until 2010. Before moving to Wareham in 2010, he served on the Holbrook Board of Selectmen, Board of Assessors, and the Housing Authority.

He said that while he’s not a “miracle worker,” his experience working with the state government will be useful to the Wareham Housing Authority in seeking more grant money for housing programs.

“There are people that want to do things, and there are people who just want to row the boat until the day they retire,” said Powilatis. “The only reason I would run is to make change, and make things better.”

Town Clerk

Incumbent Mary Ann Silva is seeking another three-year term as Town Clerk.

Silva has served as clerk since 1998, and says she hopes to stay until it’s time for retirement.

“This is my career," she said. "I ran for Town Clerk to change careers. ... It wouldn’t make sense to quit.”

Need to register to vote for the election and the subsequent April 22 Town Meeting? The last day to do so is Tuesday, March 12. The Clerk's office will remain open until 8 p.m. for that purpose.

The Town Clerk's office is located on the first floor of Town Hall, 54 Marion Road.