It’s a strong contention this year in Windham’s local elections as campaign signs crop up around town in preparation for the big day Tuesday.
On the Town Council, incumbent Robert Muir of the West District runs unopposed while two challengers, Brian Butler and Ryan McDonald, look to unseat incumbent councilor Elizabeth Wisecup for the Town Council-at-Large seat.
On the School Board, incumbent Donna Cobb faces challengers Jeff Pierce and Marge Govoni. All three candidates are vying to fill two seats on the board.
Election polls open at 7 a.m. on Tuesday, June 13, and close at 8 p.m. at the Windham High School auxillary gym, located on the left side of the campus on Route 202.
For those who want to vote early, absentee ballots are available before election day at Windham Town Offices off Route 202.
Town Council, West District
Councilor Robert Muir running unopposed
Robert Muir, 59, has served as both council chairman and representative of the West District for three years thus far. A retired electronic specialist for DeLorme map company, Muir lives on Northwood Drive with his wife Barbara.
If re-elected, Muir aims to ensure that Windham sees “sensible growth” in tune with the town’s goals for the future.
Part of maintaining growth is bringing the town’s zoning and ordinances up to date and making sure they are consistent with the town’s Comprehensive Master Plan, he said.
In this vein, Muir has become involved with the PRIORITY task force, a collaborative of town officials and volunteer board members who are reviewing a process for revising the town’s ordinances and zones.
“Anything we do, we have to be mindful of the businesses that are going on now,” Muir said. “You’ve got to look at the whole process. We’ve really got to take the time and look at everything.”
In examining the town’s commercial and residential zones, it’s important to keep in mind the preservation of Windham’s rural character, Muir said.
One way to keep that character is to preserve open space through the transfer of development rights where landowners agree not to develop a portion of their land in exchange for a property tax reduction. This could help farmers reduce their bills and prevent the further loss of Windham’s historic farming community to new development.
“People like Windham as a rural town,” Muir said. “People like it that way and don’t want to see Windham built up side by side like Portland.”
With new commercial and residential development putting a strain on town services, Muir would like to look into the possibility of “impact fees” for new building projects so general taxpayers don’t carry the burden caused by new development in town.
If re-elected, Muir also plans to examine the space needs for fire safety, rescue and police services. The town appropriated $30,000 to reconfigure space in the Public Safety Building on Route 202 where fire and police officials share a main facility.
A police substation in North Windham may need to be addressed in the future, Muir said, so as to handle the many calls for service from this commercial center of town.
Town Council At Large (three-way race)
Elizabeth Wisecup vs. Brian Butler vs. Ryan McDonald
Councilor Elizabeth Wisecup
Elizabeth Wisecup, 64, has served as a Town Council-at-Large representative for three years. A registered nurse for St. Mary’s Hospital in Lewiston, Wiseup lives on Highland Cliff Road with her husband Clarence. She is currently the council’s parliamentarian.
As a councilor, Wisecup has kept a keen eye on municipal expenses and asks many questions when it comes to issues that affect the Windham residents.
“I’m not afraid to bring up any issue before the council,” Wisecup said. “I’m honest and I’m a stickler for detail.”
Wisecup is a strong advocate for the preservation of open space in Windham and praises groups like the Windham Land Trust for campaigning to preserve acres of land and protect Windham’s rural character.
The town began putting money aside last year to seed an “Open Space fund.” In the future, Wisecup hopes the town will be able to use this money to apply for matching grants through foundations, like Land for Maine’s Future, to purchase and preserve acres of land in town.
As chair of a steering committee, Wisecup helped to create the town’s current Comprehensive Plan before she was elected to the council and, if re-elected, she’ll press to follow through with goals outlined in the plan.
The Comprehensive Plan maps out new goals for the town to achieve in the coming years like revitalization of the South Windham village and directing commercial development along Windham’s major corridors.
The greatest challenge facing the follow-through of the plan is an update of town ordinances and zoning. Wisecup has also become involved with the PRIORITY task force to develop a process to achieve this goal.
“I’ve learned it takes time to do things and do things right,” Wisecup said. “And when you’ve got all volunteers doing this, that’s a lot of work.”
When looking at budgetary concerns, Wisecup tries to weigh the needs and wants of citizens with the property tax burden on residents and businesses.
She believes most residents in Windham want the same thing in the end: “to live in a safe community where they have good schools and good neighbors.”
Challenger Brian Butler
Brian Butler, 44, is running for Town Council-at-large seat currently held by Elizabeth Wisecup. Marketing director for an engineering firm in Portland, Butler lives on Carriage Hill Drive with his wife Jennie and sons Nathaniel and Matthew.
Butler is running for Town Council to bring better communication between town officials, the community and the many volunteer committees who plan and brainstorm for the town.
Too often, Butler said, committee reports or issues brought forth by residents are dismissed. And many people have given up speaking to the council or working in the many committees because of this lack of communication, he said.
“You have people who get involved with these committees, but the Town Council never interacts with those committees,” Butler said. “My attitude is that the Town Council should be providing the leadership and what their committees have produced, the council should enact and embrace.”
He is also an advocate of the ordinance overhaul underway by the PRIORITY task force to make sure Windham is in line with the Comprehensive Plan.
But some parts of the Comprehensive Plan, Butler said, like transportation initiatives, have reached their end, but more still needs to be done.
In terms of transportation, Windham needs to become a more pedestrian and bicycle friendly town.
Talking with neighbors during his campaign, Butler said he’s heard complaints that students don’t walk to school because they are afraid of getting hit on Windham Center Road or don’t walk down to Thayer’s Store or Dundee Park on River Road because of the traffic.
“If you were going to ride your bike to Dundee Beach, you can’t get away from the traffic,” Butler said. “And because of that it’s very dangerous.”
River Road is the chief transportation problem in this regard, Butler said. River Road has become a regular highway road for commuters between Windham and Westbrook with poor grading, sight distance and a lack of curb lanes.
If re-elected, Butler aims to make sure small issues that are big problems for some residents don’t get swept under the rug like the winter sand left on the road during the spring and the hefty cost of town trash bags.
He would also like to make more information available to residents struggling to pay their property taxes, like the Homestead Exemption and abatements for low-income residents.
Challenger Ryan McDonald
Ryan McDonald, 27, is running for the Council-at-Large seat against incumbent councilor Elizabeth Wisecup and challenger Brian Butler. Owner of a property management and inspection company, McDonald lives alone on Studio Drive. He is a current member of the Planning Board.
McDonald said he’s found his time on the board “very enlightening” and is seeking election to the Town Council to encourage development in Windham.
He is an unabashed defender of developer’s rights and believes an adverse attitude toward business growth leads to lack of negotiation between the town and businesses on where to direct development.
“I don’t want to stop growth,” McDonald said. “If the people want to come here, we need to embrace that. We need to be friendly to growth to be able to control it. We need to drop this notion that we are a rural community. Farming is not an industry that’s thriving in Windham.”
If the town works together with new developers, more concessions can be made and the town can direct growth using the Comprehensive Plan as a guideline on how to do so.
To protect the environment and open space, McDonald said the town could pursue transfer of development rights by entering into bargaining agreements with developers.
McDonald does agree that Windham’s ordinances are out of date and is involved with the PRIORITY task force to change that.
“We have to be clear and concise with our ordinances. We can’t have language that’s so vague,” McDonald said. “I have a working experience with these problems and have insight on how to solve them.”
McDonald also believes that it is unfair that the Public Safety department is given a “blank check” each year on their expenses and that they are not as heavily scrutinized as other departments.
While some may disagree with what he has to say, McDonald said he is unashamed to speak out with candor and “call it like he sees it.”
School Board (three candidates vying for two seats)
School Board Rep. Donna Cobb
Incumbent Donna Cobb, 61, has served on the School Board for two terms thus far. A daycare owner for more than 40 years, Cobb lives on Park Road with her husband Jim.
Cobb is seeking re-election to push for more quality teachers, smaller classroom sizes and to work through policy changes at the school.
The school district is constantly in the process of tweaking its curriculum, she said, to adapt to changes in the federal standards of the No Child Left Behind Act and the ever-evolving Maine Learning Results.
These federal and state standards aim to evaluate a school’s achievements and prepare students for post-secondary education.
“It’s made teachers and students more accountable for their work,” Cobb said. “The (standard) benchmarks are for all students, not just a few.”
Since Cobb has been on the board, Windham students have always been ahead of the game, she said, in meeting these benchmarks.
She approaches school board decisions by considering “what would work for everybody,” she said.
If re-elected, Cobb would like to continue to work on the school’s new “wellness policy.”
In recent years, the school system has instated new nutritious lunch options like a salad bar and vegetarian choices and removed soda machines from the schools.
After discovering that many young students didn’t get a chance to eat before arriving for classes, the school board adopted a “breakfast program” to make sure the kids got fed.
Whereas budget constraints are a constant concern, Cobb said she looks at cuts in the budget carefully to make sure they don’t negatively impact the students.
One current topic of conversation in board meetings is clustering bus stops to save on fuel costs and the amount of time students spend on bus rides.
“It’s an area we can look at and maybe save a little bit,” Cobb said. “Looking at the cluster stops is not going to pull out enough to hire another teacher, but it will put dent in (expenses.)”
Challenger Jeffrey Pierce
Jeffrey Pierce, 50, unexpectedly joined the School Board to serve an interim position after member Ann Rich resigned early this year. An account manager for Cross Insurance Agency, Pierce lives on Webb Road with his wife Carol.
Having served on the School Board in previous years, he is excited to get back involved and hopes to make a difference if elected to the board for another term.
When voting on an issue, he says he takes into account three things: how it will affect the students, the teachers and the taxpayers of Windham.
Communication is a key part of making good decisions on the board, Pierce said, and he hopes to bridge the gap between parents and school officials.
It’s important to make parents part of the discussion on policy changes, he said. As a past president of the Maine Parent Teachers Association, Pierce has talked routinely with state education officials about how changes at the state level are viewed by parents concerned for their children’s education.
“If you get these parents’ input, you’ll get a much better product when you’re done because all these people are stakeholders in local education.”
Pierce’s biggest concern is keeping and retaining “quality teachers.” He defines a good teacher as an educator who can “come in the classroom, identify with different learning styles, adapt accordingly and inspire his or her students.”
During this spring’s school budgetary process, Pierce learned that there has been an increase in high school students who are struggling with reading and writing. He sees this as a sign of weakness in the chain of education and something he promises to look into if elected.
If re-elected, he hopes to help Windham students improve through the Maine Learning Results, though he doesn’t believe standardized tests should be the only tool in assessing a student’s achievement.
Pierce is also dedicated to trimming down the school budget from its yearly six to eight percent increase, he said, by making cuts to operating expenses while keeping money in the classrooms.
Challenger Marge Govoni
Marge Govoni, 64, is running again for the Windham School Board. A former manager for a manufacturing firm in Massachusetts, Govoni lives on Johnson Road with her partner David Nadeau, a member of the Windham Planning Board.
Govoni now works as a “noon aid” at the Primary School and helps run the Windham Food Pantry as chair of the Windham Human Services committee.
Govoni is running for election to the board to re-connect the school board with the people and schools that their policy decisions affect.
“(The school staff) feels that the board is a little bit out of touch,” Govoni said. “I’d like to give them that personal touch.”
As a “noon-aid” at Windham Primary, Govoni makes sure the kids stay out of trouble during recess and eat nutritiously. This insider’s perspective would allow her to maintain ties with the staff and ensure that school policy beneficially affects Windham school children.
Her main concern for the future of Windham education is the lack of follow-through with policy decision made by the board, she said.
She said there’s been a lack of presence at the schools from the school board and that, after their policy decisions are made, nobody from the school board ever sets foot inside to see how their decisions affect the schools.
She aims to be more proactive than reactive in making board decisions and seeking input from staff, parents and kids.
If elected, she wants to make sure Windham school children are at the receiving end of taxpayer’s money put forth for education.
The budget, as it stands now, is too “top heavy” in terms of administration, she said, with salaries totaling close to $1 million a year. She argues that teachers need that money more than administrators and more money should be put back into the classroom.
“There’s too much money being spent administratively,” Govoni said. “These kids are the future of Windham and if we don’t give them a good education, they are never going to be able to compete out in the real world.”
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