BREWER, Maine — Candidates vying for seats on Brewer’s City Council and school committee touted their experience and desire to collaborate to improve the city and its schools Monday night during a community forum.
Three candidates, including a pair of incumbents, are running for three-year terms on the City Council.
Matt Vachon, a carrier for the U.S. Postal Service and the city’s mayor, is running for re-election. Jerry Goss, a two-time former mayor and former Brewer High School principal, also is running to retain his seat for a third term.
Adam Eldridge, a project engineer for Somatex Inc. and graduate of Brewer schools, has entered the race as a newcomer to Brewer politics. He’ll be trying to take a seat from one of the incumbents.
Goss stressed the need to promote Brewer.
“We need to let people know the positive things that are going on in our schools, in our city,” he said.
Vachon said continued economic development — such as what Brewer has seen along Wilson Street and the waterfront in recent years — would bring in more business and revenue for the city.
Eldridge expressed concern about taxes.
“I feel like they’re too high, and they keep going up,” he said, adding that he hoped continued economic development in the city would help ease the burden on property taxpayers.
Two three-year posts are open on the five-member Brewer School Committee. Both incumbents — Dani O’Halloran and Kevin Forrest — are running to retain their seats.
Both touted their experience over the past three years and improvements seen in student test scores and the high school graduation rate.
Forrest stressed the need to improve relationships with area districts that send students to Brewer High School. O’Halloran said the schools were the “focal point” of the community and that the better they are, the more people would be willing to settle their families in Brewer.
Trying to win a spot at the committee table are Michael Hutchins, Corey Bobb and Tammy Smith.
Bobb is a real estate agent with ERA Dawson-Bradford and parent of three Brewer schoolchildren. Smith is a freelance court reporter with four children in the Brewer school system. Hutchins taught in Brewer schools for 25 years and works as a federal law enforcement officer and chaplain.
Bobb said his goal was to “make the Brewer school system better,” and he expressed concern about the number of high school students from sending districts that Brewer loses to Bangor’s John Bapst Memorial High School. He said he’d like to start an agriculture program at the high school, perhaps as part of a partnership with the University of Maine.
Smith said she hoped voters would give her a chance on the school committee so she could collaborate with the other members to ensure Brewer’s schools were as attractive and valuable as possible for families.
Hutchins, who was out of town Monday on work-related training, said in a statement read during the forum that he “knows the inner workings of the schools and [would] work in the best interest of the students.” He also said he wanted to see the teachers’ contract stalemate settled.
Two other candidates, Michael Friel and Ashley Blanchard, will be vying for a one-year post on the school committee. That spot needs to be filled after Julie Milan resigned from the committee in September when she moved out of the district.
Blanchard has worked as a special education teacher and said that experience would help her identify with the challenges faced by teachers in the district.
Friel, who works with the Holden Fire Department and coaches youth football in Brewer, had a practice on Monday night and did not attend Monday’s event.
Monday’s forum was organized by the Brewer Education Association.
Election day is Tuesday, Nov. 3. Polls will be open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. at the Brewer Auditorium. Absentee ballots are available at the city clerk’s office inside Brewer City Hall, 80 N. Main St.
Follow Nick McCrea on Twitter at @nmccrea213.