WINDHAM – Windham voters on Tuesday ousted incumbents from the Town Council and re-elected former councilors Donna Chapman and Bob Muir.

Chapman, 54, of Batchelder Road, who withdrew her re-election bid just before the 2010 election, won the three-year seat representing the South District. She defeated first-term incumbent Kevin Call, 976 votes to 920. Call had been serving as the vice chairman.

Muir, 66, of Northwood Drive, who served two terms from 2003-2009, defeated incumbent Peter Anania 1,161 votes to 749. Anania, who owns several businesses in Windham and Gorham, has served appointed and elected positions intermittently on the council since 2010. He was serving as a member of the finance committee.

In the uncontested race for the three-year North District seat, Roy Moore, who owns North Windham businesses Seacoast Fun Park and Moore Chiropractic, earned 1,512 votes.

Voters also elected two newcomers to represent Windham on the Regional School Unit 14 race. Jennifer Fleck, with 1,042 votes, and Eric Colby, with 1,010 votes, won three-year terms by beating Pete Hensslaer, who had 768 votes.

Windham voters passed four of the five state referendums. Question 4, which was a $4.5 million bond to provide funds for Maine Maritime Academy, went down to defeat, 1,058-946.

Back to the future

According to Lane Hiltunen, a columnist for the Lakes Region Weekly and longtime council observer, the election of Chapman and Muir is a shift that will take the council in a different direction.

“The change is going to be more in the direction of listening to people rather than promoting the business community constantly,” Hiltunen said. “To me, the ones that lost were pushing WEDC (Windham Economic Development Corp.), and business development and infrastructure. The question now is in what direction will the sewer project go. That’s going to be the biggest change.”

Both Chapman and Muir were vocal opponents of the council’s 2012 plan to build a multi-million-dollar sewer system in North Windham and Windham Center, saying residential taxpayers shouldn’t carry the burden of a system that benefits mostly commercial users. While that proposal suffered a significant defeat last November, the council had recently raised the topic of constructing a wastewater treatment system again, beginning with a smaller system for the economic development zone off Enterprise Drive in North Windham.

Asked if Chapman’s views regarding the sewer proposal may have helped her in the race against Call, who was a strong sewer-proponent, Chapman said, “I like Kevin, I just didn’t like some of the things they were doing for the town. I think they were taking the wrong direction on quite a few things actually, like the skate park for one, the sewer, issues like that.”

Muir, who served two terms on the council from 2003-2009 and has run unsuccessfully for council almost every year since 2009, said his convincing defeat of Anania, who also supported a sewer, may have been influenced by the revived push for a sewer.

“I think sewer [played a part], because it’s still being talked about, and people are just tired and didn’t think they were getting as much representation as they felt they should because you had this block of four councilors and the other three really couldn’t do much. And I think they were just tired of what they were seeing,” he said referring to councilors Matthew Noel, Scott Hayman, Anania and Call.

While they believe sewer discussions may have influenced the vote, both Chapman and Muir also said a meeting at Council Chambers Monday night regarding streetlights played a role in their victories. The room was filled with residents upset that the council may remove about 100 streetlights throughout Windham for energy savings of about $12,000. Residents at the meeting, which overflowed into the hallway, expressed concerns about public safety, as well as a lack of councilors at the meeting to listen to concerns.

“The only councilor there was Tommy Gleason, and I think the people – I know – they were upset about that. People weren’t happy,” Muir said. “Someone said at the meeting, ‘Who’s going to make the decision?’ And someone said, ‘Well, the council.’ And they pointed to all the empty chairs up there and said, ‘Well, where is the council? If they’re going to make the decisions why aren’t they here to listen to us.’ Yes, that struck a big chord with people. That room was packed, there were people out in the halls, and it takes an awful lot to fill that room up with people and when they show up you probably ought to listen to them because you know there’s a lot more that did not show up that feel the same way.”

Muir, who was ousted in 2009 during the “Winds of Change” campaign that brought the bloc of then-newcomers Bill Tracy, Noel, Hayman and the late Peter Busque into office, visited 1,600 residences during his campaign, and said voters wanted a change this time around, as well.

“Certain councilors, a lot of people felt, maybe they had their own agendas. Committees were appointed and maybe there should have been different people put on the committees,” Muir said. “I think people are looking for change. My campaign was basically based on giving the average person a voice on the council. If someone brings something up, the council up to now may have talked about it, but I’d like to investigate those things in-depth. Let’s have a good discussion about it.”

Chapman was part of the council in years past when arguments were frequent and tempers flared. After one contentious closed-door meeting, Chapman stormed out. Chapman said there were personality conflicts after the 2009 election between certain members of the board but that the new makeup of the board should allow for good discussion of issues with no flare-ups.

“Looking at this council coming in,” Chapman said, “I think we’re all kind of like-minded. I just think there’ve been some different things in the past that caused those contentions that need to be set aside to move the town forward right now. Now’s the best time.”

Looking forward, Chapman said the town needs to gain a broad perspective and that the comprehensive master plan process, which was last completed in 2003, is long past due and should be top priority.

“Our main focus really needs to be that (comprehensive) plan so we can chase state and federal funding to help us with some of these bigger items that we need,” she said.

Chapman, a full-time student at Southern Maine Community College studying behavorial health and human services, said Tuesday night’s council meeting could effect more immediate change. She wouldn’t disclose details but said residents should attend or tune in on TV.

“There will be some change. You’ll have to watch Tuesday. And it will be, I feel, in the best interest of the town and its citizens to move us forward,” Chapman said.

Windham voters navigate through a sea of campaign signs on the way to voting at Windham High School on Tuesday morning. Voters effected a sea change of sorts by defeating two incumbents and electing two former councilors.Donna ChapmanRobert MuirRoy MooreJennifer FleckEric Colby

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