Richmond voters have returned one incumbent to the Board of Selectmen and have picked a newcomer to fill the second board seat from a field of six candidates.
Unofficial results from Tuesday’s municipal election show O’Neil LaPlante Jr., the current board chairman, who is completing his first term as a selectman, received 241 votes. Randy Bodge, who said he ran because he wanted to serve his town, received 300.
And in a three-way race for one seat on the Regional School District 2 board, incumbent Jay Brown got 265 votes. Challenger Mary Woodbury received 246; and John Pearson, 158 votes.
Tuesday’s election was held in conjunction with the state primary and a week after 101 town residents approved Richmond’s $2.3 million municipal budget. The budget included funding for a part-time year-round recreation director.
Neither LaPlante nor Bodge immediately returned calls for comment.
LaPlante, 72, said he wanted to see a number of projects currently underway through to completion, and he’d liked to work on forming a long-range planning committee to consider town priorities in the next decade or so.
Bodge, 56, is retired from the Maine Department of Transportation. He said the experience he gained managing large budgets for the state department would help him in the role of selectman. He is a brother of Richmond Selectman Robert Bodge.
Votes for the rest of the field came in this way:
• Mark Taylor, a mason, paid coach and fill-in janitor, 177 votes.
• Marilynn Grizkewitsch, a special education teacher in School Administrative District 11, 174 votes.
• Abben Maguire, a Sagadahoc County grass-roots organizer for the Maine Democrats, 170 votes.
• Brian Woodbury, owner of a real estate company who does consulting and home inspections, 157 votes.
Jessica Lowell — 621-5632
Twitter: @JLowellKJ
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