SOMERSET — One year after bumping Patrick O’Neil from the chairmanship of the Board of Selectmen, residents returned him to the board yesterday.

O’Neil logged 53 percent of the vote in a race against veteran Selectman Eleanor Gagnon, according to a preliminary tally from the town clerk’s office.

O’Neil, a Fall River school teacher, got 1,990 votes to 1,736 for Gagnon, a Somerset businesswoman, and he won in each of the town’s five voting districts.

In the other races where there was serious competition, both Town Clerk Patricia Hart and Tax Collector Lisa Viana handily won reelection.

The four-way race for a seat on the Playground and Recreation Commission was the closest of all.

Incumbent Raymond Frizado, who did not participate in any of the candidate forums and had fewer lawn signs than some of his opponents, was the apparent winner. But it was a squeaker.

Just 58 votes separated Frizado from second-place finisher Jeffrey Thompson, who did participate in the forums and was the first to put up signs in town.

In the fifth contested race, Pauline Moniz barely put up a fight against Scott O’Brien, who won another term as Water and Sewer Commissioner. O’Brien got nearly 74 percent of the vote, according to the preliminary totals. It was the largest margin of any contested race.

Except for the Water and Sewer race, few people were making predictions yesterday about how the contests would unfold.

After a series of controversies over the past few years, Gagnon was widely regarded as being in deep political trouble. There was some doubt in town that she would seek reelection.

Yet she lost by just 254 votes to O’Neil, who played the aggressor in the race and tried to paint Gagnon as less-than-steadfast in her opposition to the widely unpopular LNG projects in the area.

Gagnon had argued that she has one of the original opponents of LNG.

O’Neil said last night he was returned to the board because “people know what I’m about. I’ve always been about being positive, I’ve always been about working with people, and that’s what I’m going to do. … I look forward to working with all the people.”

Gagnon, the first woman to be elected to the office, was upbeat in defeat, saying she felt good about running a positive campaign.

“I feel like I’ve tried to do my best for Somerset,” she said.

Gagnon also said she looked forward to being able to spend more time with her family and vowed to “find new adventures.”

It’s not the first time she has lost her seat on the board. She was defeated in 1996 by Roger Benevides, yet came back to beat him three years later.

She said last night she did not foresee running for the office again, yet stressed that “I have no intention of dropping out of sight.” She said she would now be even freer to speak out, as a citizen, on town issues.

“I feel like I’ve been liberated,” she said. “Now I don’t have to hold back.”

This year, Benevides was challenging Hart, who has been town clerk for 22 years and has never been opposed.

Hart won with 65 percent of the vote.

Both candidates were at the town offices last night, and Benevides was quick to congratulate her.

Asked for her reaction later, Hart did a little tap dance while sitting down. She didn’t stand up, she joked “because my knees are out of whack.”

Viana, who has been in the tax collector’s job for four years and was challenged by Roberta Fisher, who had never run for office before, garnered 64 percent of the vote and logged the exact same number of votes — 2,371 according to the preliminary count — as Hart.

“I always listen to my Mom, and my Mom said, ‘You’re gonna win,’ ” said Viana.

Her mother, Mary Bertrand, said the victory was due, in part, to “a lot of prayer.”

In the four-way contest for Playground and Recreation Commission, incumbent Frizado, who retired this year from the Highway Department, won three of the five districts. Voters at the public library, the middle school and Wilbur School gave him the highest tally.

Thompson, another political newcomer known for his volunteer work, was the top vote getter in the northern part of town, particularly precincts that vote at the Water Treatment Plan and the Chace Street School.

In all, Frizado got 34.4 percent of the vote, Thompson garnered 32.8 percent, Joseph Duarte (who came in second in the northernmost district) got 23.2 percent and Zachary Powers-Alves received 9.6 percent.

gemery@projo.com