The two Windham Town Council races on the June 10 ballot feature incumbents who want to build on their service and challengers who want to change the way the council conducts business.

Carol Waig, who has served on the council since 2005, faces a challenge for an at-large seat from political newcomer Lane Hiltunen and Anne Rich, a previous member of the Windham School Committee. At stake is a three-year term.

In the East District, voters will choose between John MacKinnon, a councilor for the last three years and the current chairman, former Councilor Will Blanchard and Michael Wakefield, a relative newcomer to Windham.

All Windham residents can vote for candidates in both races, regardless of where they live.

Waig, 42, of 26 Trails End, won her seat in 2005 after an unsuccessful write-in campaign the previous year. She is a Windham High School graduate and is employed as a staff development specialist at the Maine Correctional Center in Windham.

During her term in office, Waig is proud to have been part of the Council’s decision to change town ordinances to make housing for the elderly more equitable. Another highlight was the addition of sewer to South Windham Village, she said, which helps keep pollution out of the Presumpscot River.

Waig said the economy is the biggest issue that will face Windham residents and the Town Council over the next three years. Rising prices are going to make it even more important that the Council spend town funds appropriately, and only when necessary.

“Keeping a low mil rate and adequate services for citizens is an accomplishment that will have to continue in the next few years as times get more trying for the residents as well as the town,” she said.

The Council, Waig said, has succeeded in that regard with the current budget proposal.

“I feel pretty confident about the 2008-2009 budget,” she said. “We are keeping the taxes to a minimum as well as keeping adequate services with the rising prices of everything from fuel to food costs. It is imperative that we look at what is in the best interest of everyone in town.”

If re-elected, Waig plans to work on improving Windham’s infrastructure to make it more viable for bigger businesses. She has also spoke in favor of adding a BMX bike park to the site of the Windham skate park, and hopes residents will lend their talents to that site in order to build a simple, low impact park for the entire community to enjoy.

Hiltunen, 59, of 316 Gray Road, moved to Windham 10 years ago after retiring from a 20-year career in the U.S. Army. If elected, he hopes to use his experience solving disputes and managing people to end what he described as a year of bickering and little work by the council, which he blames on the incumbents seeking re-election.

“The biggest reason I am running is the division on the current Town Council,” Hiltunen said. “The infighting and spitting and catcalling I think is totally improper. We need leadership that can stop all this squabbling. If it happened in the military, it was up to me as a leader to solve it and solve it quickly.”

Hiltunen said he sees a “financial tsunami” coming in the near future. With prices rising on everything from oil to food, people are going to be stretched to the limit financially, and the town needs to be sure it is doing everything it can to help residents, he said.

“Our government is going to have to be ready for a big change,” Hiltunen said.

It starts with the budget, Hiltunen said. For all the talk of tight budgets with no fat, there is always a waste factor, he said.

“If you need $5,000, you ask for $8,000 and hope you get $6,000,” said Hiltunen, who, if elected, said he would push to start the budget process early so councilors can give it a proper review.

“If you start planning by October, at least you can have the groundwork in place,” he said.

In order to offset the tax burden, Hiltunen said, Windham needs to attract more commercial development. First, the Town Council needs to address the lack of a sewer in North Windham, where he said the need for septic systems hurt businesses financially and take up valuable space.

Hiltunen first got involved in town politics in 2003, when he led a fight against a town plan to tax personal property. When he first heard about the proposal, he said, he was furious.

“I didn’t know how to do it, but I was going to start a petition,” Hiltunen said.

Support for his effort snowballed, and the issue was dropped, but Hiltunen continued to keep an eye on the people who ran Windham.

“I’ve stayed interested in politics ever since,” he said.

Rich, a former School Committee member in Windham, could not be reached for comment, and did not attend a candidates night hosted by WCCG TV-7.

John MacKinnon, 54, of 143 Haven Road, is an engineer for Hydro International in Portland. He has served on the Town Council since 2005, and has been the chairman the past two years.

His three years have given him insight into town operations, MacKinnon said. If re-elected, he is ready to tackle the tough issues on the horizon in Windham.

“I feel like I’ve got to the top of the learning curve, and feel like I can make improvements on how the town works,” MacKinnon said.

One of the biggest lessons he has learned, he said, “is just how tight a budget we have to work with.” The 2008-09 budget, he said, “is very tight. There’s not much in the way of padding on it.”

As prices rise on materials like asphalt, town funds will not go as far, MacKinnon said. In order to take care of the town’s needs, the Town Council is going to have to make sure it plans its projects well, and look to neighboring communities for consolidation opportunities, he said.

“I think we are all going to have to learn how to share a little,” MacKinnon said. “I think it is the only way we are going to save.”

Councilors should set meetings with other town councils and boards of selectmen to get the ball rolling. It is already happening at a lower level, he said. Windham Public Works is talking to neighboring towns about sharing equipment, and school consolidation is showing signs of savings, MacKinnon said.

“I think that is the beginning of what we could do,” he said.

Councilors also need to lead a town-wide conversation on the future of Windham, especially to develop a vision for the future of North Windham, MacKinnon said. A public sewer, road construction and maintenance, and business development are all issues that need answers, he said. Windham also needs to decide the types of businesses it wants in town, then the Town Council can build the infrastructure and create the services needed to support those businesses, MacKinnon said.

“I think we need to sort out what we want North Windham to look like,” he said. “Until now, it has been kind of catch as catch can.”

With these issues up in the air, the next three years seem crucial to Windham’s future, MacKinnon said, and he hopes to be part of the solution.

“It really seems like crunch time,” he said.

Blanchard, 67, of 125 Nash Road, is no stranger to the Town Council, having served for six years, 1998-2004. He is employed as a licensed social worker at the Maine Correctional Center in Windham.

Like Hiltunen, Blanchard wants to bring civility back to the Town Council, and get the town government moving forward.

“I don’t like all the bickering, and I don’t see that they accomplished anything this past year,” he said.

Blanchard said his governing style is to look at the whole of the issues facing Windham, and to use the town’s ordinances and charter as a guide.

“I’m a laid-back person, but I speak my mind,” said Blanchard, adding that he is always open to solutions, regardless of their source. “I am not going to say no just because it was somebody else’s idea.”

The Town Council, Blanchard said, has to look more closely at the budget. While he hasn’t reviewed the current budget proposal in depth, he said, from past experience he knows there is always room to cut.

“Any time they put a budget together there is fluff in it,” he said. Given the opportunity to take part in a budget process as a councilor, Blanchard said, he would find the fluff, and make sure Windham was not overspending.

“It’s like your home budget,” he said. “You can’t spend what you don’t have.”

Drawing business to Windham is a “necessity,” said Blanchard, who would like to see “clean” industry come to town in addition to retail.

Most of all, Blanchard said, he would bring experience, frugality and dedication to the Town Council. During his previous stint in office, Blanchard served twice as chairman and twice as vice chairman. In his six years, he said, he only missed one meeting and one workshop.

“I’m pretty dedicated as far as making sure I’m there,” he said. “You have to be. That is where you get your information.”

Wakefield, 30, moved to Windham three years ago. A native of northern Maine, he now lives at 5 Silvers Ridge with his son and wife, who is expecting another child. He is a landscape foreman.

A Green Party member, he was first urged to run for the Legislature, but decided instead to try his hand at town politics, where he said change is needed.

“People are not happy with the performance of at least some of the councilors,” Wakefield said. Many residents are split over who is to blame for the council’s troubles, he said, but whatever the case, the town’s business is not getting done.

“There’s a lot of bickering and fighting,” Wakefield said. “Things are not getting taken care of.”

If elected, Wakefield said he will follow the key values of the Green Party, including environmental awareness, social tolerance and equity. To him, that means finding a balance between getting people the government services they need and not wasting taxpayer dollars.

As a councilor, he would try to attract the kind of businesses that would provide Windham with good jobs, while protecting established local business owners. Another “gigantic box store” might not be the way to go, Wakefield said.

“I would rather see a smaller, Maine-based business,” he said.

Wakefield would also like to see the council promote public transportation. He is researching the potential for bringing the Metro bus service to Windham, which would give residents, particularly the elderly, a way to get to Portland for things like doctor appointments.

“They already go to Westbrook,” he said of the Metro, which he said would benefit Windham in a number of ways. “It’s less cars on Route 302 and less gas we are using.”

As a newcomer to politics who has not taken a side in town matters, Wakefield feels he can offer a lot to the Council.

“I have strong opinions about the way I want the world to be,” he said. “But I’m willing to take a step back from my own personal opinions.”

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