Melissa Spinney, current Alna second selectman, has announced she is running for first selectman. When longtime First Selectman David Abbott decided not to run for re-election, both he and Third Selectman Doug Baston urged her to run for the post Abbott has held for years.

“Melissa has served as Second for three years, and she is totally prepared to step up, and that was part of my decision in stepping down,” said Abbott. “People underestimate how much work goes into this job every single day because they only see us meet every other week. It’s not a job you just walk into.”

“Melissa does a great job,” said Baston. “She brings skills to the work that neither Dave or I have, and she works, really, really hard.”

“I’m running because I believe the most important part of this job is balancing the interests of all of the people of this town,” said Spinney. “One of the things about sitting here every other week and getting around town for the other parts of the job, is that you see how many people in Alna are struggling just to get by, pay their taxes, buy food, and oil, etc. We have a limited tax base here, funded almost entirely by property taxes, and we have the highest taxes in Lincoln County already. We have to pick a balance between the community we would like to be, with the community we can afford to be. When I think of any expense, I have right in my mind very specific families and I think to myself: ‘Can they afford this?’”

“I am not a flashy person, and I’m not running on any specific agenda. If I am successful, I will simply try to manage the town as David has done, efficiently and with compassion. I also plan to honor and support how the town votes on any matter, as any selectman is supposed to represent the community after all.”

By training, Spinney is a neuroscientist, having received a doctorate at the University of Connecticut and having spent years at a post-doctoral fellowship at Oregon Science University, where she researched ways to ameliorate the effects of premature brain injury. She has lived in Alna for eight years with her husband Jeff and their son Chase, who is a fifth grader at Great Salt Bay. She is the manager of Albee Farm and a member of the Alna Snowmobile Club. And while having lived in numerous states on both coasts she finds Maine and Alna, in particular, the best place to live and raise a family by far.