Jane S. Willett, 57, wants to return to Gorham’s Town Council for a fourth three-year term “because it’s still challenging.”
Willett, who also served nine years on the School Committee, said the current council members work well together. She cited some of the projects they implemented during her tenure on the council. Those included a new public works garage, library addition, new middle school and the pay-per-bag trash pickup and recycling, along with the renovation of the Shaw School for a new Municipal Center.
Now an executive with United Way, she was a public school biology teacher for 30 years in other communities. Willett went to Colby College and then earned a master’s degree in education at the University of Maine in Orono. She wants to maintain the quality of Gorham schools, which makes the “town vibrant.” Some people have moved to Gorham because of the schools, she said.
Traffic will be an issue for a long time, according to Willett. She said the council lobbied for the bypass and it made sense to “break the bypass” in half to get money. “I can’t project” when money for phase 2 of the bypass would become available, she said.
Willett, who has lived in Gorham for 22 years, said more cars are traveling through Gorham in recent years as neighboring towns have grown. She said a Turnpike spur would divert traffic. “We have sprawl,” she said.
To help relieve problems caused by commuter traffic cutting through Gorham residential areas, Willett said the council has added stop signs in neighborhoods and installed speed bumps on Weeks Road near the middle school.
Also she said the timing of traffic lights and an additional traffic light in the village has helped. New Portland Road has been resurfaced, “keeping the flow going,” she said.
Parking in Gorham Village is limited and she said the council is looking at options to resolve the shortage. Willett said business owners could also look at ways to mitigate the situation.
She would like to make Gorham Village more pedestrian friendly and would prefer more of a quaint appearance for downtown. When businesses remodel, she said Gorham should seek a traditional New England look.
Economic development is important for Gorham and she said a Turnpike spur plus the new sewer line along Mosher Road would help Gorham be more competitive in attracting business. She wants the state to help with its tax structure to make small towns more appealing.
Willett would like municipal and school offices to work together, sharing their technology.
She was in Europe and missed the council discussion and vote on consolidating the town’s dispatching services. She declined to say how she would have voted. However, she said she would have preferred a four-year deal, instead of the two-year contract Gorham signed with Cumberland County for dispatching.
She’s hoping that Gorham could receive free legal council to develop “something creative” for property tax relief, allowing longtime residents to stay in town until they die.
Willett and her husband, Daniel Willett, have two children, Beth, 27, and Laura, 17, a Gorham High School senior. They live on Valley View Drive.
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