Voters have choices for selectmen, School Committee and the Water Commission.
LISBON – Town residents will have plenty of choices in the municipal election Saturday since all seats are contested except for the Library Governing Board.
One unusual aspect is that Layne Curtis, a former Board of Selectman chairman, is running for both selectman and School Committee. The two positions are incompatible under state law so if he wins election to both, he would have to choose.
Six candidates are running for two openings on the Board of Selectmen, while four are seeking the two seats on the School Committee. There is a two-way race for a single, three-year term on the Water Commission.
Board of Selectmen
Candidates for the two, three-year openings on the Board of Selectmen are Paul P. Chizmar, Layne A. Curtis, Ralph G. Day, Richard A. Gamache, Herbert L. “Pete” Reed and Chairman E. Charles Smith, who’s seeking re-election. The other seat is being vacated by Gertrude Duval.
• Paul P. Chizmar, widower of the late Assemblywoman Nancy Chizmar, says he’s concerned about taxes and about the future of Lisbon. A native of Jay, he has lived in Lisbon for 60 years. Previously, he served on the School Committee for six years.
If elected, his goal, in addition to his concern about taxes, is “to set an agenda” for the future of the town.
He is the father of four grown children and is retired. His education includes Lisbon High School and the University of Maine.
• Layne A. Curtis’ experience includes four years as selectman, during part of which he was chairman, and four years on the Advisory Board. He served on the Planning Board for three years and on the Building Committee for seven years, and is a 20-year veteran of the Fire Department. If elected, he hopes to provide management that will be “proactive and user-friendly … and promote services that the people want.”
A Lisbon resident for 40 years, he has two children and two grandchildren. He’s a hydroelectric power plant operator.
• Ralph G. Day, 58, of Summer Street, has worked at Masonite Corp. for 38 years. His has served on the Library Governing Board and the Advisory Board. He says the board needs new people. “We need people who will ask questions … and say ‘no’ when needed.”
Born in Lisbon Falls, he grew up in Durham. He moved back to Lisbon after his marriage in 1970 and has lived here since. He’s a graduate of Lisbon High and has earned college credits at the University of Maine. If elected, he says he’ll listen to people, “try to keep taxes as reasonable as possible” and “show up at all meetings.”
• Richard A. Gamache, 34, of McLellan Street, married and the father of three, has been a network engineer for John J. McMullen Associates for 17 years. This is his first try for elective office. His goals, if elected, include “city beautification” and keeping the town “safe and family oriented.” He is also interested in the school system and would like to see it improved, saying “I will do the best I can to improve perceived problems … get people involved.”
A graduate of Lisbon High, he served 12 years in the Coast Guard and then returned to town. He and his wife, Michelle, have three children.
• Herbert L. “Pete” Reed, 66, a retired widower with two grown sons has been a member of the Advisory Board for 11 years and served as Lisbon’s representative on the Androscoggin County Budget Committee for three years. He has lived in Lisbon for 42 years and is a member of the Lisbon VFW.
“People cannot keep on paying high property taxes, and by my being a selectman, I hope that I can try to bring them down. If elected, I am going to take a hard look at all parts of the budget to see where savings can be made.”
• Board Chairman E. Charles Smith, 48, is completing his first term. He’s been a powered equipment systems technician at Brunswick Naval Air Station for 16 years. He was on the Advisory Board seven years. If elected, “I will encourage continued economic development which would result in more jobs within the town and more equal sharing of the property tax burden between business and residential areas.
A Lisbon native, he and his wife, Katherine, live in Lisbon Falls. A graduate of Lisbon High, he has an associate’s degree in business from the University of Maine.
School Committee
Candidates for the two, three-year openings on the School Committee are incumbent Chairman Harold Moran; former board member Martha M.S. Poliquin, Deborah Danuski and Layne Curtis. Incumbent Debra Matchett isn’t seeking re-election.
• Layne Curtis has filed papers for this position. Although running for both selectman and School Committee, he could only hold one position. A strong supporter of schools, Curtis says he is interested in a better education for students economically.
• Deborah L. Danuski, 44, of Lisbon Road, has three grown children and three grandchildren. A Navy retiree, she’s seeking local elective office for the first time. She ran for state Legislature in 2000. She said she wants to “work with state legislators to increase funding for education; work with teachers to improve MEA scores; to work with teachers, period, not against them” and do her best to keep property taxes down. She earned a B.A. in political science from the University of Southern Maine in 2000. An eight-year resident of the area, she’s active in several community groups.
• Martha Poliquin of Burrough Road served on the School Committee from 1995-2001 and chaired it for three years. The mother of three children, one in high school and two in college, she has worked as head cook and kitchen manager at Williams-Cone Elementary School in Topsham for four years. “With the new elementary school construction project under way, it is now time to find affordable solutions to the building concerns and needs at the high school,” she said. “I am also concerned about our high school’s federal priority school status and the need for our test scores to improve.
• Committee Chairman Harold N. Moran of Sunset Avenue, is completing his seventh year on the committee. He says there is still “much to be done, working with the community, school board members, superintendent and staff to get the work we started completed.” His goals are to increase student achievement, see the new school project through and strive to do the best the school district can with the money it gets. Moran and his wife, Connie, have three grown children, and a grandchild in the Lisbon school system. He has two years of college. A 13-year resident of Lisbon, he is a logistics engineer with Lockheed Martin in Bath.
Water Commission
Two newcomers to the local political scene, Stanley A. Doughty Jr. and Janey L. Rivard, are seeking the seat on the Water Commission being vacated by longtime Commissioner David Hale, who isn’t seeking re-election.
• Stanley A. Doughty Jr., 41, a Lisbon native, says that after several years as a district maintenance technician for the Brunswick and Topsham Water District, that he’d like to learn about the administrative end of running a public water system.
He said he believes his 11 years experience in the field would be an asset in understanding how a water district is run from top to bottom. He is also interested in the planned upgrades in the local water system, and said understands the many regulations that affect the operations of a public water supply. He and his wife, Stephanie, have three children.
• Janey L. Rivard of Bartholomew Street is the married mother of three. She said she has some concerns about the purity of the town’s water supply. “I’d like to know about funding, how safe the water is, and how the Water Department is run.”
She says that when she has attended numerous Water Commission meetings she couldn’t get the answers she sought and, if elected, she might be able to get those answers. Of the 75 residents who signed her nomination papers, she says she was told by each that “not one of them drinks the town water.” A homemaker at present, she also is a certified nursing assistant.
Unopposed
Running unopposed for two, three-year openings on the Library Governing Board are incumbents Ralph G. Day, of Summer Street, who is also running for Selectman, and Sally A. Lunt, of Ridge Road, wife of Town Manager Curtis Lunt.
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