Pittston voters retained a selectman and the road commissioner in Monday voting in the town’s two contested races for municipal office.
Residents elected Roger Linton to another three-year term on the Board of Selectmen by a 5-to-1 margin. Linton, who received 315 votes, had been challenged by former Selectwoman Wanda Burns-Macomber, who received 56 votes.
Linton, a former school principal in Gardiner and Pittston for 38 years, said he’s found Pittston residents to be good people to work with who support education and the town.
With the election behind him, Linton said he’s looking forward to working on a couple of projects. One of them is the possibility of having a public boat launch on the Kennebec River, either on town-owned property at the end of Cedar Grove Road or on state land that is west of the Major Reuben Colburn House along the river.
“We hope to get some people interested and study things and put in for a grant,” he said. There’s a lot of work to do to get the project off the ground, he said, including talking to state officials about the use of the state land.
“Nothing ventured, nothing gained,” he said.
In the road commissioner’s race, incumbent Sam Snow received 303 votes, while challenger Ray Snider got 72.
Town Clerk Deborah Barry said about 10 people were waiting when polling started at noon at the Town Office, and voting was steady throughout the day. In all, 377 residents cast ballots, including 19 who filled out absentee ballots ahead of Monday’s election. In the 2010 census, the southeastern Kennebec County town had a population of 2,666.
“The turnout was higher than last year, but that wasn’t much of a contest,” Barry said.
In other races, two positions were open on the Personnel Committee. Andrea Sparrow received 331 votes, and Patricia Philbrook, a write-in candidate, received six.
Three candidates filled the three positions on the Planning Board. Terry Shepherd received 264 votes; Dan Taggart, 237 votes; and Andrea Sparrow, 267.
Larry Ireland was elected to the Budget Committee with 337 votes.
The East Pittston Water District elected Oleksey Kakasenko as a director with five votes. Barry said only members of the water district can vote in that election, and perhaps only a dozen people are in the district.
In Pittston, the municipal election takes place on the Monday after Town Meeting.
Jessica Lowell — 621-5632
Twitter: @JLowellKJ
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