Heather Donahue was recalled from the Freedom Board of Selectmen in a vote held Wednesday. The recall leaves the town with just one selectperson, effectively shutting down town government operations. Rich Abrahamson/Morning Sentinel file

FREEDOM — Voters recalled Heather Donahue from the three-member Board of Selectmen on Wednesday night, leaving the 700-person town in limbo with only one official left in office.

Selectman Ryan Willette resigned from his post Monday night. Only Laura Greeley is left in office, making a quorum impossible and effectively shutting down town operations.

“I have authority to make payroll, benefits and state fees,” Greeley said.

Nearly a third of the town’s population of 711 turned out for the daylong recall vote Wednesday, with 122 people voting to recall Donahue and 91 voting against the removal effort.

Donahue said her safety has been threatened since national news stories broke about the recall, with many focusing on her starring role in the movie “The Blair Witch Project.” Cameras surround her house, she said, and she is receiving threatening calls from people across the country.

“This is completely insane,” Donahue said Thursday. “Because, this is where I planned to live the rest of my life, and now I have to reconsider that as well. So it’s awful, it’s awful to feel my safety threatened, but also, so many of these towns are run this way. I mean, I wouldn’t do anything differently, and I think it’s important that this is being brought out into the light.”

Donahue moved to the town in 2022 and settled on Beaver Ridge Road, a road embroiled in a townwide conflict over its public versus private status. Some say the road is abandoned and therefore private property of abutters, while others defend the road’s public status. The town ruled the road public Feb. 24.

Prentice Grassi, who circulated the petition to recall Freedom Selectman Heather Donahue from office, stands Thursday at his farm in Freedom. Anna Chadwick/Morning Sentinel

The recall petition, taken out by Meredith Coffin and circulated by Steve Bennett and 20-year Planning Board member Prentice Grassi, cited a number of Donahue’s actions regarding the road, including her painting of trees to mark the original easement.

Donahue said those actions were taken in her duty as lead researcher for the select board during a determination on the status of the road, which is also at the center of a lawsuit against the town brought by attorney Tyler Hadyniak, who lives on the road and is representing multiple members of his family.

After spending hours researching and compiling an affidavit on Beaver Ridge Road, Donahue said she is happy to be off the board.

“It was definitely a lot of work, and I’m glad to not have to do quite so much work, but I definitely feel bad for Laura, and I definitely feel bad for the people of Freedom who believed some pretty horrible lies,” Donahue said. “And my hope is that the court will rule on Tyler’s motion for summary judgment soon, so that it will be clear that they have been completely lying.”

Robert Kanzler said the recall petition was a shady way to go about confrontation.

“The recall, I thought, was unfair, uncalled for,” Kanzler said. “There’s other people in the town office that petitioned the recall, but none of them had the guts to stand up and say anything. If they had a problem with somebody — it’s easy to talk to somebody, but to go behind somebody’s back and do and say what they did, which is all false information, except for with putting some paint on the trees.”

Grassi, who circulated the petition, said the town was right to recall Donahue.

“I was relieved,” Grassi said. “I think it was the right decision. It was a hard process, was not enviable, but I think it was the right decision. To me, as I’ve been thinking about it, it’s really about one person. It’s not about this side or that side, in my mind, it’s really about one person and the way they conducted themselves.”

Willette declined to comment about his resignation.

Donahue said she plans to lie low.

“I’ve been working hard the last three years on finishing my house and planting a fruit forest,” Donahue said. “And now it’s like, as soon as I get my house finished, I’m thinking of: Where am I going to move it? That’s definitely not what I saw happening. I truly ran for the select board because I thought I could be useful, and I was useful, and what has happened is sad for all involved.”