Thomas F. Cooney

Thomas F. Cooney served on the Billerica Board of Selectmen from 1972 to 1978, and was its vice chairman for nearly all of that time. Before his election he was a town meeting member from Precinct 4, elected in March 1971 with 359 votes and re-elected for three years in 1973, and in 1971 he was a member of the Finance Committee and of the town's Council for the Aging, on which he served until 1976 and of which he was vice chairman in 1975.

In the town election of March 4, 1972, he ran for one of two selectman seats in a field of five and finished a close second with 3,073 votes, twenty behind George S. Gracie Jr.. At its reorganization the board chose Paul F. Newman as chairman, Cooney as vice chairman and Thomas H. Conway Jr. as secretary, and he kept the vice chairmanship through the boards that followed, with Gordon C. Brainerd and Michael J. Rea Jr. among his colleagues. He and Gracie were re-elected on March 1, 1975, Cooney with 2,694 votes. In 1975, as vice chairman, he presented the savings bond to the high school student whose drawing won the contest for the cover of the town report.

When the annual town meeting of March 1974 set up a Permanent Street Acceptance Committee of five town meeting members and one member each from the Board of Selectmen and the Planning Board, Cooney was the selectmen's member. He resigned from that committee on November 7, 1977, and Arthur L. Doyle took his place. He signed the warrants of the board as vice chairman under Chairman Thomas H. Conway Jr. through January 1978, and he was not a candidate when his term ended at the town election of March 4, 1978.

References

1. Billerica Town Report 1971 (in the 1969 volume), town election: Precinct 4 town meeting members, Thomas F. Cooney, Middlesex Tpke.
2. Billerica Town Report 1971 (in the 1969 volume), Finance Committee: Thomas F. Cooney
3. Billerica Town Report 1972 (in the 1969 volume), town election of March 4, 1972: selectmen, Thomas F. Cooney 3,073, George S. Gracie Jr. 3,093
4. Billerica Town Report 1972 (in the 1969 volume), report of the Board of Selectmen: 1972 reorganization, Paul F. Newman chairman, Thomas F. Cooney vice-chairman; Cooney and Gracie elected for three years
5. Billerica Town Report 1975, Council for the Aging: Edwin G. Beane, Chairman; Thomas F. Cooney, Vice-Chairman
6. Billerica Town Report 1975, Permanent Street Acceptance Committee (Article 14, 1974): Thomas F. Cooney, member, Board of Selectmen
7. Billerica Town Report 1975, town meeting: Vice Chairman of the Board of Selectmen Thomas F. Cooney presents the town report cover prize
8. Billerica Town Report 1975, report of the Board of Selectmen: 1975 reorganization, Thomas F. Cooney vice chairman
9. Billerica Town Report 1977, Permanent Street Acceptance Committee: Thomas F. Cooney, resigned 11/7/77; Arthur L. Doyle appointed 11/7/77