FARMINGDALE — Even as Farmingdale prepares for an Aug. 9 special election to fill one vacancy on the town’s Board of Selectmen, town officials are planning to fill a second expected vacancy on the board in the November election.
Isaiah Peppard and Joseph Connors have filed papers to appear on the special election ballot to serve the remaining two years of Wayne Kilgore’s term. Kilgore stepped down from the board in February.
Voting is scheduled for 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., on Tuesday, Aug. 9, at the Farmingdale Town Office, 289 Maine Ave.
Once that race is decided, Tyler Tripp, whose term is up next year, plans to step down. The election to fill that seat until the term is up in June is expected to coincide with the state’s general election Nov. 8. Tripp did not return a call for comment this week.
The upcoming special election in the town of 2,995 residents features two candidates who made last-minute unsuccessful bids to be write-in candidates at the June 14 election, where Selectman Doug Ebert appeared twice on the ballot — running for a full term and for the two-year term.
Neither Peppard nor Connors won enough votes to beat Ebert for the two-year seat.
Both are on the August ballot and said if they do not win in this round, they are expecting to file papers for the November election.
Isaiah Peppard
Peppard, 43, who has lived in Farmingdale for about 10 years, said he is running because he has always tried to be part of the communities where he has lived. His wife’s family has lived in town for decades, and his mother lived in Farmingdale when he was younger.
“Public service has always been my forte,” Peppard said. “I’ve just always been involved at some level.”
Peppard grew up in Richmond. After serving four years in the U.S. Coast Guard, he worked as an officer in the Richmond Police Department and volunteered for the Richmond Fire Department. For 11 years, he worked as an officer in the Gardiner Police Department. He is now a senior investigator with the Maine Office of State Fire Marshal.
From about 2008 to 2012, Peppard served as a selectman in Pittston, where he lived at the time.
He is also Farmingdale’s chief constable, a position he took on in 2017 following the death of Matt Guilfoyle in late 2016. If elected, Peppard said he would give up the chief’s position, but continue to serve as constable.
In that capacity, he has worked with the Board of Selectmen, which until a few years ago was a full board. But recently, he said, the chronic vacancies caused him to consider running.
“I don’t have any kind of agenda, other than doing what’s best for the town of Farmingdale and for everyone that lives in it, which includes me,” Peppard said. “It’s harder these days to find people to get involved, so I decided it was time to step up and do my part.”
He said he wants maintain Farmingdale as a safe, quiet community where people want to live. He also seeks to make improvements where they make sense.
Connors, 48, has not run for elective office before.
Joseph Connors
“I don’t have a specific platform I’m running on trying to correct (things),” the lifelong Farmingdale resident said. “I just saw there was an open spot and, at the time, nobody was running. I was in a position in life where I had the time to do it, so I thought the timing was right for me.”
Connors said the current board has been accountable for decisions on appropriations and spending town funds properly. In years past, he said, selectmen have butted heads, but he feels he would work well with Tripp and Ebert, whom he has known for years and with whom he worked as a teenager at a gas station in town.
Connors said he is fiscally responsible and would consider seriously where tax dollars are spent. Because of his experience in management, he said he would be trustworthy and empathetic to those in need.
Connors and his wife, Jess, have five children who are enrolled at all levels of Farmingdale schools.
He was general manager and machinist for 24 years at Butler-MacMaster in Hallowell. He now works as a service adviser at Charlie’s Motor Mall in Augusta.
Selectmen are paid $5,00o a year each.
Nomination papers for the November election are to be available Aug. 1, and due to the Town Office no later than 5 p.m. on Sept. 12.
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