BOWDOINHAM — By now a familiar name to Bowdoinham voters, Dean Beckwith is hoping to unseat an incumbent in a three-way race for two seats on the Board of Selectmen in November.
David Engler and Jeremy Cluchey are both seeking reelection after serving their first three-year term on the board. Both said they are running for reelection to continue the work they’ve accomplished in the last three years.
Beckwith said he has been very involved in the town but has never held office before. He ran for a seat on the Board of Selectmen three times between 2013 and 2015, and ran for the state House District 55 seat in 2014.
“It’s a public office and everybody should have the opportunity to run and that’s why I run,” he said.
A disabled veteran, Beckwith, 62, said he if elected he expects to confront issues like how the town can move towards constructing a public sewer system, which would draw more business to town. The town also faces environmental issues.
“We’re going to go carbon-free, that’s going to be a goal of the future for us,” he said.
Beckwith is in favor of the new park the town is creating at the former public works site along the Cathance River. The self-proclaimed “tree-hugger” said his main focus is to plant trees there to help the ecosystem.
He criticized the town for not doing more for its elderly population.
“Nobody checks on them, nobody does anything and they pay all the taxes, so we’re not doing enough,” Beckwith said. “Seventy percent of us are over 60 and if you have a population like that, you should build into your system something that takes care of those people because we are getting older.”
Residents age 60 and older account for 24% of Bowdoinham’s population according to the town’s 2017 Age-Friendly Action Plan.
Jeremy Cluchey
Cluchey
“I’m running because I feel really good about the work we’ve been able to do over the last three years as a board in Bowdoinham and at this moment, continuity feels very important,” Cluchey said. “We have a new town manager and we have a number of projects underway that I would love to help see through. For me, this is a way that I can be of service to the town that draws on some interests and skills of mine, and I actually really enjoy it.”
Among the accomplishments, the town landed a ConnectME grant to bring fiber optic cable to about 250 underserved households in town, he said, work that should be done by next spring.
The town also built a new public works facility which gave the town the opportunity to do something different with the 20 acres of riverfront property that was home to the former public works building.
Officials have started studying solar energy options and are working to bring the town office up to modern standards and fire codes.
Selectmen will play an important role in helping the new town manager climb the learning curve of managing a new town, Cluchey said. He also plans to continue his focus on improving communication between town officials and the public.
“What are the things the town needs to be communicating with townspeople over the next few weeks,” Cluchey said he asks at every selectmen meeting. “It’s just a good exercise.”
David Engler
Engler
“We’ve got a lot of good things going on here in Bowdoinham,” Engler said of his decision to seek reelection. “I’m proud to have been a part of them during my first term on the Board of Selectmen and I’d like to continue to see us move forward in the next three years.”
As an example, he pointed to the new public works building the town moved into this summer. Selectmen are also posed to start converting the former public works site into a park along the riverbank.
There are several other issues facing the town as well, he said.
“We discovered some significant safety problems with our municipal office building and we’ve retained an architect and are beginning to develop plans to rectify those problems,” he said.
He also noted that selectmen have started discussing a possible solar project for the town.
“It all, of course, depends on the economics but when they designed the public works building, they designed it with extra heavy roof steel to support solar panels,” Engler said. “We have a 20-acre former landfill that’s been capped for a number of years and we think that may be an appropriate place to put a solar farm of some type and I’m aware that across the country former landfills are being used for that purpose.”
Engler said selectmen have to work to keep the tax rate under control as it moves forward with projects, especially after Bowdoinham’s share of taxes to Maine School Administrative District 75 spiked to pay for a new high school. For every tax dollar, the town control’s 21.5 cents compared to 68 cents for the school, he said.
“We actually have control over a very small amount of every tax dollar and I’m pleased that when we developed the budget last spring, we ended up with only a 1.13% increase, which is half the rate of inflation,” he said. “We run a tight ship. We’ve been able to do that and at the same time, added another person to our public works department.”
MSAD 75 School Board
Kathleen Montejo is running unopposed for a single three-year term on the MSAD 75 school board. Julie Booty’s term is expiring. She has served on the school board since 2013.
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