Three candidates are facing off for two three-year seats on Bucksport’s town council: Ralph Chapman, Jon Goss and incumbent Mark Eastman.
Councilor Tracey Hair is not seeking reelection.
Councilors elected this year are likely to face continued discussions about budget reductions following cuts made after property tax bills ballooned in 2025.
The town is also navigating negotiations with American Iron & Metal, which bought the former Verso paper mill site and its holdings in 2015, including the Silver Lake dam.
AIM is petitioning the state to abandon the dam, which holds back the municipal water supply. Bucksport wants to ask voters whether to take ownership of it if AIM eventually agrees.
The mill site itself mostly belongs to Whole Oceans, which proposed a fish farm there nearly a decade ago. Officials say the project is still moving ahead, but the company has taken meetings with other companies interested in the site, including data center developers, Bucksport’s Economic and Community Development Director Rich Rotella said last week.
The current council is set to vote Thursday on a six-month moratorium to allow Bucksport to update its regulations around the projects, which has met with a mixed response.
Ralph Chapman
Chapman, a former industrial engineer, scientific researcher and scientific educator, has lived in Hancock County for 36 years and Bucksport for seven.
He represented Brooksville in the state legislature for eight years and served on committees there, and currently chairs Bucksport’s community resilience committee.
Chapman is civic-minded and thinks his previous experience could help Bucksport. That’s motivated him to run for council for the last three years, he said, and he’s focused on livability for young families.
“If the town cannot provide a way for young families to live and thrive here, then the town has no future,” he said, citing issues including the housing crisis and unaffordability, and opportunities including recreation and childcare.
Several years ago, Chapman belonged to a citizens group that successfully urged the town not to partner with AIM to reopen its landfill. That potentially saved Bucksport millions in liability for closure costs, he said.
Chapman also suggested two months ago that councilors discuss the data center moratorium on the table now.
While he supports the temporary ban and is skeptical of data centers, he’s not necessarily against one. He’d listen to a proposal, but developers would need to explain how it would benefit both Bucksport and society, he said.
He suspects the town taking ownership of the dam to be the least expensive choice, and would likely support that unless new information surfaced, he said.
Chapman supported some budget cuts and questioned others this year, such as the reduction of town funding to nonprofits and social service agencies. He said he’d look for ways to lower expenses and increase revenue, pointing to the outside funding he seeks out on the resilience committee as an example.
The committee recently won a roughly $75,000 grant for initial work to create an energy coaching program for residents to save on their energy bills.
Chapman also thinks the council could pursue property tax relief by advocating for state revenue sharing and universal single-payer healthcare, which he said would significantly cut down municipal and school employee expenses.
Mark Eastman
Incumbent Mark Eastman, currently deputy mayor, has held his seat since 2017. He’s been on the town’s economic development committee since 2012, belonged to its comprehensive planning committee in 2015 and helped found local community nonprofit Main Street Bucksport.
Born and raised in Bucksport, Eastman owns Ocean’s Edge Realty.
Every town has its challenges, he said, but Bucksport has a bright future and is headed in the right direction – attracting population for a year-round community where people can afford to work and live.
Eastman is seeking reelection to help see through projects such as a 2028 Main Street upgrade through the Maine Department of Transportation’s Village Partnership Initiative and potential mill site redevelopment.
Improvements to Main Street – with $9 million in outside funds and a $1 million town match – could also add appeal at the mill property, he said.
Today’s industry can’t replace the jobs that were lost when the mill closed, Eastman said, but he thinks the tax base can be replaced.
He supports a moratorium, but isn’t broadly against data centers.
Scale is important, he added, saying a “hyperfacility” wouldn’t suit Bucksport but a smaller project – which the state has generally defined as under 20 megawatts – might. Eastman also supports adopting decommissioning or abandonment requirements.
As for the dam, he’d rather inherit it and funding for maintenance from AIM than deal with an abandoned structure.
“I don’t see an avenue that we don’t eventually end up with this dam,” he said.
Eastman doesn’t see room for more steep budget cuts without driving off experienced town staff and cutting services. He expects to stay the course unless there’s major public sentiment otherwise.
“If people want a full service town, this is what it takes to have a full service town,” he said.
Eastman plans to make this his last term if elected. He said he has stayed to provide continuity with relatively new town manager Jacob Gran, but feels new energy is important for organizations.
Jon Goss
Goss is a local volunteer sports coach, Little League leader, parent of two recent Bucksport High School graduates and employee of Sprague Operating Resources. He serves on the town’s climate resiliency committee.
He’s been asked to run before, he said, and decided this is the time.
Goss wants to attract business while prioritizing environmental responsibility, he said. He’s from Milford but with local family and has lived in Bucksport for 25 years.
“I just want a seat at the table to help be part of the team and help carry some of the weight that the current and past councilors have had to do,” he said.
He supports preparing for a possible data center and thinks the town should hear all proposals. Bucksport needs to approach all project ideas with an open mind, he said while acknowledging the limits of direct council involvement.
He’s also interested in raising Bucksport’s waterfront in preparation for higher tides. Goss said that would also be an opening to increase accessibility and replace existing pavers with asphalt, which is cheaper to maintain.
Goss describes himself as a fiscal conservative while a strong advocate for keeping the public safety budget intact. Police presence protects the town from the looming opioid epidemic, he said, and current addiction resources aren’t adequate.
He said it’s up to residents to decide on the dam’s future when the time comes and information is available on the most economically feasible option.
But Goss, who lives along the lake, doesn’t see maintaining the water level as a priority without major demand from a paper mill. He suggested a rock spillway as a less costly alternative.
The only way to preserve Bucksport’s character and community pride in it is to help residents avoid being pushed out by rising property taxes, he said. At the town level, the only remedy is economic development for the tax base, in his view.
“At the end of the day, if we don’t attract business to town, then we can’t sustain certain programs,” he said.
Polls will be open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Nov. 3 at the G.H. Jewett School.
