Five candidates, in which two are incumbents, are running for three seats on the Old Town City Council.
The candidates — Robin Cacace, John Dieffenbacher-Krall, Linda McLeod, Scott Wilcox and Katrina Wynn — bring various experience on the City Council, in the city’s school, environmental efforts and city administration. Electees will serve a three-year term.
Councilor David Wight, who was first elected in 2020, is not seeking re-election.
Electees will join an Old Town City Council that recently voted in favor of city staff cuts as it navigates rising costs and a drop in tax revenue after Nine Dragons Paper closed in 2023.
The candidates appear in alphabetical order.
Robin Cacace
Cacace, a retired teacher and coach of the Leonard Middle School boys soccer team, decided to run for council to give back to her community, she said. Cacace isn’t running on a single issue or with plans to implement a specific policy, but said that she wants to learn how council works and then see how she can act on changes the community wants.
“I don’t want to go in with the idea of: I’m going to go in there and make waves,” Cacace said. “I just want to go in and try to support what’s going to make our community better, and that’ll take a learning curve.”
Although she hasn’t previously run for council, Cacace said she was involved in a community project to keep a nuclear waste facility out of Old Town in the ’90s. She’s also been involved in other community projects, she said.
While she doesn’t have specific ideas of how to solve issues facing Old Town, including rising taxes, she said they should be worked through with input from community members.
The Juniper Ridge Landfill, and its proposed expansion, are a space for community input, she said. Cacace said she’s against its expansion and worried about the environmental impacts it already had and any possible future contamination.
John Dieffenbacher-Krall
Dieffenbacher-Krall, an environmental activist and previous executive director of Wabanaki Alliance, is running for council for the first time to give residents another option at the ballot box, he said.
Serving on the boards of non-profit organizations, churches and various committees has given him the experience he needs to be on council, he said. His background as a writer and editor for the Maine Sportsman and at the University of Maine will also help him share council’s work, he said.
Using his experience, he said he’d push for Old Town to become a zero-waste community. In response to the Juniper Ridge Landfill possibly expanding, which he calls an “abomination,” Old Town needs to enter a better host agreement with the landfill and do its part in reducing waste, he said.
“We need to go from a throwaway society to a zero waste society, and one of my priorities is to make Old Town a leader of that,” Dieffenbacher-Krall said.
Dieffenbacher-Krall’s other priorities include protecting city services from cuts, increasing recreation for residents and spurring economic growth.
Old Town isn’t “past hard budget times,” but emergency services need to be funded and staffed, he said. As a councilor, Dieffenbacher-Krall said he would look for efficient ways for the city to keep its services while keeping taxes affordable.
Linda McLeod
McLeod, who has served as a councilor since 2017, was previously a teacher and principal at Indian Island School and later the Maine Indian Education superintendent. She is currently the longest serving councilor on the Old Town City Council.
McLeod did not respond to requests for comment about why she is running for re-election or what her priorities are. When she ran for re-election in 2023, she said one of her top priorities was to attract new business to the city.
Scott Wilcox
Wilcox is the chief executive officer of the Old Town-Orono YMCA and was previously the Old Town public safety director. He stepped down from the position in 2023 after 26 years as a police officer.
Old Town is going through “some difficult times” that Wilcox said he thought he could help with, prompting him to run. Rising property taxes and stagnant growth for both businesses and family housing are the city’s largest issues, he said.
ND Paper’s closure in 2023 changed the town’s taxes and budgeting, but the city should still be making an effort to find a business to replace the mill, or use that space, Wilcox said.
“I think maybe it’s time that we re-identify ourselves not as a mill community any longer, but try to find something else to go there or work with [ND Paper] to do something different,” he said.
As a councilor, Wilcox said he would talk with the mill owners, electrical businesses that previously showed interest in the site, and with University of Maine to see what collaboration could be done to attract new business to the city. Opening up conversations with businesses that have decided not to come to Old Town could also show how the city could grow, he said.
With businesses not bringing in additional taxes to the city, Wilcox said he would want to review city services for any overlaps and decide what is needed or what is “nice to have.” Conversations with community members, and a possible committee, would be needed to see what residents want the city to provide, he said.
When asked about the Juniper Ridge Landfill and its possible expansion, Wilcox said Casella Waste Management have been good community partners but the city should better understand what the state’s end goal for the landfill is.
Katrina Wynn
Wynn, who was elected to half a term in 2025, is running for re-election because she wants to be able to represent a demographic that isn’t always present at meetings or in decisions — parents with kids in the school system.
In her last 16 months on the City Council, Wynn said she’s learned more about how the council works but didn’t have time to bring forward priorities she wants to see in front of the council. Her largest concern is Old Town’s affordability.
“I think the biggest issue is we’re a mill town without a mill. We have services built on mill money and no mill,” Wynn said.
Residents have told Wynn that they don’t want city services to be cut but also don’t want to pay more in taxes. Wynn said “it’s fairly impossible to do both,” and she’s prioritizing services while still trying to keep tax increases minimal.
There are ways to create a higher quality of life for residents without a spike in the budget, Wynn said. More accessible crosswalks, removing library late fees and creating additional access to recreation and the environment are relatively small changes but could all make residents’ lives easier, she said.