Wiscasset residents have five select board candidates to choose from on Tuesday, June 13. The candidates, listed on the ballot in alphabetical order, are Kimberly Andersson, Robert Blagden, William David Cherry, Glen Craig and Katharine G. Martin-Savage. Voters will select two to serve two-year terms beginning July 1. Larry Gordon did not seek re-election.

Absentee ballots are available at the town office during business hours. Residents can register to vote there or at the polls on election day. The polls at Wiscasset Community Center will be open 8 a.m. to 8 p.m.

Andersson sees an abundance of untapped talent and opportunity in the Wiscasset community. “My husband and I fell in love with Wiscasset when we moved here 12 years ago.” She’s confident Wiscasset’s best days lie ahead but only if the community shows a willingness to work together.

She said the select board and school committee should talk more often and develop a more cooperative relationship. “The discussions between them need to be more positive. Both sides must understand and appreciate they’re each working in the best interests of the community.”

Andersson said a lesson could be learned from the miscommunication resulting from the proposed school energy project. She feels the discussions could have been carried on with less acrimony.

She has attended nearly every select board and school committee meeting for the last three months and attended meetings of the Maine Department of Transportation Public Advisory Committee, planning board and other committees.

She supports MDOT’s $5 million downtown project. “Widening the sidewalks and adding the new parking areas will make it easier for people to come and enjoy our downtown. It’ll be a huge benefit to the summer art walks when it’s completed.” Andersson believes other Wiscasset attractions like the airport and waterfront need to be better utilized and promoted to attract more investment. “We have some amazing people living here. We need to get more of them involved and energized to serve on boards and committees.”

She and her husband Mikael Andersson and their two children live on Brown Road. Andersson previously served three years on the Sheepscot Valley Regional School Unit 12 board. She was an educational technician in Wiscasset Middle High School’s aspirations program for two years before becoming a first-year teacher this school year. She said she is developing a new alternative education program for ninth and tenth graders. She earned a bachellor of arts degree from Stockton State College in New Jersey and recently enrolled in a master’s program at the University of Maine at Farmington. Her goal is earning an advanced degree in Education Leadership with a concentration in administration.

“I’m running,” Blagden said, “because others have promised to try and get control over property taxes and haven’t. If taxes keep going up, we’re never going to attract new businesses to help with the tax base. Would you want to invest here after property taxes just went up 14 percent?

“Last year selectmen spent all the town’s fund balance and took another $450,000 from the investment account. If they hadn’t done that property taxes would have risen 22 percent. Selectmen were able to put off another huge tax increase this year by selling the primary school. So what will they do next year to stave off another tax increase? The problem is we’re spending too much money, more than what the tax base can support.”

Blagden is also concerned with $380,000 still owed to the school department. “I’ve heard the various explanations how this happened and I don’t doubt the town owes this money. But as I’ve said at the selectmen’s meetings there needs to be accountability for the error.”

Blagden voted against MDOT’s downtown project. “I could see from the beginning it would wind up costing the town a great deal more for maintenance but voters overwhelmingly supported it.” He said he likes the improvements proposed for Railroad Avenue but not at the expense of losing all Main Street parking. “I’m against tearing down Haggett Garage. The town will be losing around $9,000 in property taxes if they do that. That’s just stupid.”

Blagden has called Wiscasset home over 60 years, having grown up on Churchill Street. He’s been a selectman three different times. He served as road commissioner when it was an elected position and as public works director. Blagden is the current chairman of the budget committee. He operates a towing business and garage at his Gardiner Road home with his wife Marla. They have one grown daughter and two sons.

Cherry is the incumbent. “There are a number of things I would enjoy seeing through,” he said, among them MDOT’s downtown project.

“Last June voters overwhelmingly supported Option 2. I personally voted for Option 1, which would have left some parking along Main Street. Regardless of my own preference on the project, I’ve supported MDOT’s efforts over the last year to make Option 2 a reality. Having served on the Public Advisory Committee, I think MDOT has listened to the community’s concerns and incorporated a number of the suggestions we’ve made.”

Cherry said he’s heard the arguments for and against saving the Haggett building. “I don’t have a dog in that fight. I appreciate the arguments on both sides. The most salient fact is MDOT now owns the building and property and can do whatever they want with it.” MDOT plans to raze the building to make way for a parking lot.

The select board, Cherry continued, needs to work closer with the school committee, avoiding disagreements like the one over the school energy project. He said he thoroughly supports education and didn’t question the need for making the school facilities more energy efficient. “My concern was with the dollar amount and the long term financing of the project. I felt strongly it should go to the townspeople for their approval.”

Cherry said he supports efforts by Peregrine Turbine Technologies to expand its business on Birch Point and hopes the company will make Wiscasset its permanent home. “Hopefully this will result in more jobs and add to our community’s tax base.”

Cherry is employed at Wiscasset Public Library and operates a baking business, Miss Kittie’s Cakes, from his home on the upper end of Main Street. He holds a bachelor of arts degree from the University of California, Los Angeles and a master’s from Columbia University. He’s called Wiscasset home since 2002.

If elected, Glen Craig promises he’ll bring an open mind and fresh perspective to the select board. “If I don’t understand a problem, I’ll spend whatever time I need to make the best decision for the community as a whole.”

He said one concern is getting more people engaged in the decision-making. “Too few people turn out for public hearings. They don’t read the newspapers and don’t understand why monies are being requested to fund projects.” An example is the school energy conservation project.

“We offered two separate tours of the school buildings for people to come and see why we’re asking to fund the project. I think we had maybe 30 people show up. Jeff Slack was the only selectmen who attended. My concern is there aren’t enough voters who understand this project. It will eventually save the community tax dollars and pay for the investment.”

Property taxes are a big concern for Craig and his wife Sandy who own waterfront property on Sheepscot Shores Road. “The problem is more complicated than simply cutting spending and services year after year. We have to focus our attention on the community’s long-term needs and come up with a workable plan to begin addressing problems with our roads and buildings. We can’t just keep putting these expenditures off hoping the problems will take care of themselves.”

Craig said MDOT’s project will be good for the town. “The town voted overwhelmingly in favor of doing the work. Now we’ve got to move ahead to see it gets accomplished.”

Voters elected Craig twice to serve on the school committee; he must resign from the committee if elected to the select board.

Since 2005, he’s worked full-time as an independent agent for State Farm insurance. From 1988 to 2003 he was general sales manager for Wiscasset Ford. He and his wife have raised five children. His youngest daughter will graduate from WMHS in June.

Martin-Savage served a two-year term on the select board from 2002 through 2004. In January, she ran unsuccessfully to fill a five-month select board vacancy. “I’m very concerned at the way property taxes have been escalating, 14 percent in 2016.

“It’s not just people on fixed incomes who are hurt by higher taxes, it’s the businesses, too; it means they have to put off expanding or can’t hire more help. We’ve got to get town spending under control or no one’s going to want to open a new business here. We need a strong business community to help with the tax base and also to provide jobs.”

Martin-Savage has concerns about MDOT’s downtown project. She’s against removal of the Haggett building. “We’re sitting quietly allowing the state to take this building down for parking and nobody’s talking about the property taxes we’ll be losing if they do this.”

She believes eliminating Main Street parking will hurt Main Street businesses but supports efforts to pave and add parking on Railroad Avenue. Martin-Savage likes the idea of the state reconstructing sidewalks and thinks this can be accomplished without taking away all the parking. “Maybe they can keep some Main Street parking by not widening the sidewalks as much and changing the parking from diagonal to parallel.”

She said selectmen should work closer with the school committee and coordinate efforts to control costs. She’d like to have the town planner do more to spur economic development.

Martin-Savage serves as Friends of the Wiscasset Public Library President and on the board of directors of the Wiscasset Female Charitable Society and is a past member of the planning board and budget committee. Before retiring, she worked in the Lincoln County District Attorney’s Office and she was employed by the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office and has served as a member of the Two Bridges Regional Jail Authority. She resides on Indian Road.