Candidates, proposals and budgets: Voters face major decisions at town meetings next week
KENNEBUNK, Maine — Kennebunk and other neighboring communities will be electing local candidates and tackling town meeting warrants next week.
Here's a look at voting in the area to include Kennebunkport, Wells, Ogunquit, Sanford and RSU 21:
Voting in Kennebunk
In Kennebunk, voters can report to the polls at the Town Hall at 1 Summer St. Tuesday, June 14, from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m.
Three candidates are seeking two three-year seats on the Kennebunk Select Board: incumbent Chair Blake Baldwin and challengers Miriam Whitehouse and Leslie Trentalange. Incumbent Selectperson Frank Paul is not seeking another term.
Three candidates, Andrew Freda, Gayle Asmussen Spofford, and Claudia Sayre, are on the ballot, seeking one of two Kennebunk seats on the RSU 21 School Board. Incumbents Tim Stentiford and Matt Fadiman are not seeking reelection.
Also on the ballot, Wayne Berry is seeking a term as a trustee of the Kennebunk Light and Power District, and incumbent Wayne Brockway, treasurer of the Kennebunk Sewer District Board of Trustees, is pursuing another term. Neither is being challenged in their bids.
Also on Tuesday, voters will be asked to approve several proposals, one of which is for the town’s new, updated comprehensive plan. If passed, the plan would provide an outline for the future of Kennebunk for zoning and ordinances and offers guidance for the town’s development. A copy of the plan is available on the town’s website.
Another proposal this Tuesday seeks to change the zoning at the Barnard Tavern property at 9 Barnard Lane from the Village Residential District to the Portland Road Mixed Use District. The tavern’s owners, Randy and Kari Gates, are requesting the zone change, which would allow them to convert the historic structure into a new inn. Currently, the Barnard property abuts the Portland Road Mixed Use District.
Another is the proposed renovation and expansion of the public services facility at 36 Sea Road. The public services department has outgrown its current facility, and the town also is putting this project forth to address issues related to ventilation, mechanical systems, code compliance, and public access, among other concerns.
Another article proposes domestic partner insurance coverage, which, if approved, would allow eligible town employees the option of enrolling a domestic partner in their plan.
Voters also will be asked to approve a proposed Contract Zone that would help Kylie Raymond and Nicholas Raymond, of Kyick Holdings, LLC, in their efforts to build a brand new Pilot House Restaurant on Harbor Lane and relocate The Spirit of Massachusetts from the Kennebunk River onto land.
Currently, the restaurants are located within the town’s Lower Village Business and Shoreland Overlay zoning districts. The Raymonds are seeking a contract zone because they are not able to carry out their plans under the current zoning. If approved, the contract zone would not result in any additional uses on the property and would only make adjustments to setbacks to enable the proposed developments on the land, according to the application.
Voters on Tuesday also will weigh in on a citizen-initiated petition calling for a resolution to take action on climate pollution.
If passed, the resolution would authorize the select board to let state and federal officials know the town of Kennebunk calls upon federal elected representatives to “enact carbon-pricing legislation to protect Maine from the costs and environmental risks of continued climate inaction.” Specifically, voters are being asked to support a “cash-back” form of carbon pricing that would charge fossil fuel producers for the carbon pollution they produce and would rebate the collected money to residents “on an equal basis with monthly dividend checks.”
For more information about Tuesday's voting, see Town Clerk Merton Brown’s voter guide online. For extensive details about the town’s proposed budget for Fiscal Year 2023, visit the town’s online Budget Page.
Voting in Kennebunkport
Voters will elect public officials at the polls at the North Fire Station at 32 North St. this Tuesday, June 14, from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m.
Four candidates are on the ballot for two three-year terms on the local board of selectmen: incumbent Chair Sheila Matthews-Bull is joined by challengers Robin Phillips, Larry Keller and Jon Dykstra. Selectman Patrick Briggs has decided not to seek re-election.
Newcomers Jameson Davis and Benjamin Rubin are in the contest for a single three-year term to represent Kennebunkport on the RSU 21 Board of Directors. Board Vice Chair Loreta McDonnell is not seeking reelection.
Also, Thomas Neufeld and Frederick Stafford are vying for a single, one-year, at-large spot on Kennebunkport’s Beach Advisory Committee. Chair Kate Bauer Burke and incumbent members Joanne Gustin and Jennifer Wasserman are not seeking another term.
Also on Tuesday, voters will weigh in on five proposed town-code amendments. One pertains to the Kennebunkport/Kennebunk River Ordinance and interlocal agreement. Another seeks to remedy an omission in harbor and waterfront definitions. The other three are related to local sign regulations.
On Saturday, June 18, voters will work through the articles of the town meeting warrant at the Kennebunkport Consolidated School at 25 School Street, starting at 9 a.m.
Of note, voters will be asked to authorize the town to appropriate $386,000 in federal American Rescue Plan funds to purchase two police cruisers and two dump trucks for the public works department and to pay for a new server and a website upgrade at the town hall.
For details about the town’s proposed Fiscal Year 2023 budget and the above proposals, see the multiple links at the bottom of the town's online Elections and Voting page.
Voting in Arundel
Voters will first head to the polls to elect public officials at the town’s municipal building at 457 Limerick Road on Tuesday, June 14, from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m.
Political newcomer Ryan McQueen is the only one running to complete a term on the RSU 21 School Board that member Todd Shea vacated back in November, according to Town Clerk Emily Nedeau. School Board member Erin Nadeau, who currently occupies the Shea seat, is on Tuesday’s ballot seeking her own three-year term, as incumbent Ira Camp is not seeking reelection.
Two incumbents – Secretary Jason Nedeau and selectperson Velma Jones Hayes – are unchallenged in their bids for three more years on the Arundel Board of Selectmen.
As well, incumbent Secretary Theo Rohrs is assured three more years on the Arundel Budget Board. Three other seats are available on the budget board – a single three-year seat and a pair of one-year seats – but nobody took out nomination papers for them.
On Wednesday, June 15, voters then will report to the Arundel Municipal Building to address town meeting warrant articles at 7 p.m.
Of budgetary items, voters will be asked to raise and appropriate $184,000 for the hiring of two additional full-time firefighters and paramedics for the local fire and rescue department. As well, voters will decide whether to approve $25,000 from the town’s undesignated fund balance to buy and install new playground equipment at the town’s municipal building. Voters will also be asked to approve $39,250 to purchase a new cruiser for the York County Sheriff’s Department to support Arundel’s contract deputies.
Voters also will be asked to approve $270,000 from the Coronavirus State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds – which are part of the American Rescue Plan – to make repairs at the Arundel Fire Station, remove asbestos from the former town hall, to fix the public works department’s Mack truck, and to go toward the town’s 10-year road improvement plan.
To view the full town meeting warrant, complete with Fiscal Year 2023 budget details, click here.
Voting in Wells
Voters will elect officials and address warrant articles at the polls at the Wells Junior High School gym at 1470 Post Road on Tuesday, June 14, from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m.
Five candidates are seeking two seats on the Wells Board of Selectmen. Incumbent Vice Chair John MacLeod III is facing challenges from candidates Scott DeFelice, Karl Ekstedt, Jonathan Goodine, and David Jutras. Selectmen Chair Sean Roche has opted not to pursue another term.
One three-year seat is on Tuesday’s ballot for the Wells-Ogunquit Community School District’s board of directors. Chair Helena Ackerson is facing a challenge from Timothy Ratliff.
Four candidates are seeking two three terms on the Wells Public Library Board of Directors. Incumbents Vice Chair Elise LaPlante, Treasurer Peter Masucci, member Alice Schleiderer and newcomer Stephen Giannetti.
Incumbents Justin Batchelder and Alphonse Miski are uncontested in their bids to remain trustees of the Wells Sanitation District’s board. As well, incumbent Thomas Oliver also is assured another term as a trustee of the Kennebunk Kennebunkport Wells Water District.
Voters on Tuesday will be asked to amend the town’s Land Use Ordinance to reduce the minimum lot size of cluster subdivisions from the current 20,000 square feet to 10,000 square feet for one-family dwellings and 15,000 square feet for two-family homes. The proposal is one measure that the town is putting forth in its ongoing attempts to address the rate of development in the growing community.
Also of note, voters will be asked to authorize selectmen to lease town-owned property at 762 Burnt Mill Road for the creation and maintaining of a public dog park.
To read the town meeting warrant, complete with Fiscal Year 2023 budget details, click here.
Voting in Ogunquit
Voters will elect officials and address warrant articles when they report to the polls at 23 School Street on Tuesday, June 14, from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m.
Eight candidates are seeking four at-large seats on the town’s Budget Review Committee: incumbent Thomas Sellers III and Michael Collins, David Fazzina, Peter Griswold, Everett Leach, Frederick Lynk, Patience Prescott-Sundaresan, and Michele Tourangeau.
Also on Tuesday’s ballot, Selectperson Carole Aaron is uncontested in her bid for three more years. As well, Boriana Dolliver is assured a three-year term on the WOCSD board, given Aneliya Georgieva-Petrov’s decision not to seek reelection.
View the full town meeting warrant, complete with Fiscal Year 2023 budget details.
Voting in Regional School Unit 21
Voters in RSU 21 communities – Kennebunk, Kennebunkport and Arundel – will weigh in next week on $54.3 million in proposed spending for Fiscal Year 2023.
The proposed budget includes a call to transfer $2.8 million from available fund balances to the School Capital Reserve Fund and to expend close to $3.1 million from that fund for the renovation of the athletic complex at Kennebunk High School. If the budget passes, then the school district could very well break ground on the project later this month. RSU 21 School Board Chair Art LeBlanc had said the district’s goal is to complete the complex by the spring of 2023.
In 2015, the school board designated $250,000 for a new track because the current one is in such disrepair that athletic events cannot be held on it. That amount has been transferred to the fund that the district has established for the project. Last year, the board also moved $1.25 million in unused construction monies to the project’s fund.
These amounts, taken with the $2.8 million transfer request in the proposed budget, would put the project fund at $4.3 million, the total it is estimated to cost. That final estimation includes contingency funding at 10%.
Voting in Sanford
In addition to its annual school budget referendum vote, the City of Sanford also will have a one-race special election on the ballot this Tuesday, June 14. Three candidates, Nathaniel Hitchcock, Michael Termath and Dennis Woodruff, are seeking to serve the remainder of term of the late City Councilor John Tuttle, who died earlier this year. The term expires on Dec. 31.
For details about the school department's proposed budget for the coming fiscal year, click here.
This article originally appeared on Portsmouth Herald: Elections June 14 in Kennebunks, Wells, Ogunquit, Sanford, Arundel
