Four candidates are running for two Orono Town Council seats this November.
The candidates, Devon Biggie, Dan Demeritt, Daniel LaPointe and Colleen Marzilli, have various experience serving on or previously running for the Town Council.
Demeritt is running for reelection. The other council seat up for election is held by Vice Chair Sarah Marx, who announced earlier this year that she would not be seeking reelection after a three and a half year term.
This November’s election will add at least one newcomer to Orono’s seven-member Town Council. In the past year, the council has voted on funding for major town projects, approved a 10-year comprehensive plan and created a committee to revitalize its downtown.
The candidates appear in alphabetical order.
Devon Biggie
Biggie, a University of Maine alumnus and engineer, said during a candidate forum on Oct. 7 he’s running for council to make the town better for his children. Biggie focused on economic development and affordability during the forum.
This is his first time running for council.
The “growth opportunity” that Orono has for housing and businesses gives the town opportunities to expand that he would want to act on as a council member, Biggie said. With those opportunities, Biggie said he would take a “30,000-foot” approach to looking at how current initiatives are being run to learn more about how everything works.
“I want to make this a home for my family, and I want to work toward that,” Biggie said at the forum.
To keep Orono affordable for residents, Biggie said he’d look at proposals for projects and developments to see if they are wants or needs. If the town needs to fund a project, every source for funding should be researched to lower the impact it would have on the town’s tax rate, he said.
Dan Demeritt
Demeritt has served on the Town Council for three and a half years and has been chair during the council’s vote on bond issues and the creation of a noise ordinance.
He’s running for re-election because there’s “more to do” in the town, he said at the forum. Initiatives to bring community members together and create policy from public comments have been successful, but there’s still a chance to bring in new economic and policy opportunities to the town, he said.
“No is not the last word in Orono, even though it’s spelled that way,” Demeritt said.
In response to a question about affordability, he said the town should talk with UMaine about an updated payment in lieu of taxes agreement to help offset costs created by Orono’s services. The amount UMaine pays Orono, $650,000 a year, has not changed in more than a decade, he said.
Daniel LaPointe
LaPointe, who has previously unsuccessfully run for the Orono council, said he’s “really concerned about the abuse of authority and the violations of people’s civil rights” in the town and would focus on these issues if elected. During the forum, he pointed to human trafficking and delayed court dates as problems affecting Orono residents but did not say how he would attempt to change these issues if elected.
Orono used to be a booming community but “paperwork and obstructionism” in the form of administrative oversight and costs have gotten in the way of it being able to welcome businesses or expand services, LaPointe said
“Services are paramount,” LaPointe said, adding that Orono’s emergency services should be kept at their current levels but other costs, including administrative, should be cut to lower the town’s tax rate.
Colleen Marzilli
Marzilli is a professor of nursing at the University of Maine and a nurse practitioner. She ran for a council seat in 2025, and earned the third most votes.
If elected, she said she would work to connect Orono’s “natural beauty and capacity for innovation” with residents’ needs. She would do this through listening, learning and asking questions about any decisions up to vote, she said at the Oct. 7 forum.
Marzilli wants to be fiscally responsible while maintaining essential services and infrastructure, she said. It’s important to review how services are delivered, keep Orono affordable for residents, and invest in future housing and business, she said.
Orono residents can vote in person at the New Balance Field House and Memorial Gym on UMaine’s campus from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Nov. 3.