WINSLOW — Incumbent Town Councilor Jeff West has won his bid for reelection, while Lee Trahan will replace Ken Fletcher in the second at-large seat on the board.
Jeff West Courtesy of Jeff West
West received 631 votes, Trahan received 617 and the third candidate, William Sadulsky, received 302, according to Town Clerk Lisa Gilliam. Turnout for Tuesday’s election was light: 16% of Winslow’s registered voters — 949 people in total — voted.
Longtime councilor Fletcher decided to step away from politics this year in order to be able to travel south for the winter.
Lee Trahan Courtesy of Lee Trahan
Trahan, 48, who owns an architectural drafting and design company, said he was “a little in shock because it’s all new” Tuesday night after the ballots were counted.
“I just want to thank everyone for their support, and I plan on doing the very best job I can by getting all the facts I can before voting on everything and discussing everything with the residents as much as possible,” Trahan said. “There’s plenty of work that needs to be done.”
Trahan sat on the Winslow School Board from 2016-2017 and has represented the town on Vassalboro Sanitary District Board of Trustees since 2006. In 2017, Trahan lost in one of the town’s closest-ever council races, when he fell just one vote short of Councilor Jerry Quirion.
West, 48, a one-term councilor, could not be reached for comment Tuesday night. He works as a maintenance technician at Spectrum and has a background as an emergency medical technician and firefighter. Trahan and West will serve three-year terms that commence in January.
UPDATES TO TOWN CHARTER
Voters also overwhelmingly passed all 10 ballot questions Tuesday.
Those questions included seven relating to cleaning up language and grammar on the town’s charter, a process Town Manager Mike Heavener said Winslow undergoes about every five years.
Question 6, which requires the town manager to submit a budget proposal 150 days before the start of the fiscal year, passed 719 to 199. It replaces the current mandate for the town manager to provide a budget 120 days before the start of the fiscal year.
Question 7 also passed handily, 763 to 149, requiring the Winslow school district’s annual budget to receive the town’s approval via referendum after it is approved by the town council. This change reflects current state law and is already in practice.
With the approval of Question 10 (778 to 145), local candidates and town employees will be banned from using public funds to aid their campaigns or to promote or oppose a ballot question. Heavener said he is unaware of any person who has used public funds in this way in the past but that the language is designed to make it explicitly clear that doing so is prohibited.
Among the language- and grammar-related questions, Question 1 received 763 yes votes and 127 no votes; Question 2 received 799 yes and 127 no; Question 3 received 789 yes and 131 no; Question 4 received 833 yes and 89 no; Question 5 received 757 yes and 110 no; Question 8 received 829 yes and 87 no; and Question 9 received 816 yes and 105 no.
SCHOOL BOARD; UNCONTESTED RACES
Several candidates were elected to other town seats after running unopposed.
John Ferry, who currently holds the District 2 seat on the Winslow School Board, has filled Earl Coombs’ former seat as the at-large representative on the school board. Coombs, who was on the board for 15 years, did not seek reelection.
Earl Watts will replace Ferry as the representative for District 2 on the school board.
Incumbent library trustees Karen Andrus and Wanda Terp will each serve an additional three-year term. Karl Dornish, incumbent Kennebec Water District Trustee, also earned another term on the body that supplies Winslow, Waterville, Fairfield, Benton and Vassalboro with water for domestic and commercial uses as well as for fire protection.
After voting concluded Tuesday, only one seat remains to be determined: the District 4 school board seat. Randy Clatchy, who held the seat since 2016, did not run for reelection because her daughter graduated from Winslow High School earlier this year. Gilliam noted that there was no declared write-in for the position Tuesday night.
STATE BALLOT QUESTIONS
In terms of the state referendums, Question 1, about the infrastructure bond received 670 yes votes and 278 no votes in Winslow. Question 2, regarding the constitutional amendment, received 709 yes and 234 no votes in the Kennebec County town.
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