Candidates for Hallowell municipal offices to be filled in the November election will face the public at a forum Tuesday evening at City Hall.

Two races are contested: Councilor Alan Stearns, who represents all of Hallowell, is defending his seat against Christopher Walters, and Kate Dufour faces Larry Morrissette for an open seat in the northern Ward 1.

Another two councilors, Phillip Lindley, the council president and an at-large member, and Lisa Harvey-McPherson of the rural Ward 5, are running unopposed on the ballot. RSU 2 board member Shawna Corbett didn’t get on the November ballot, but she said she’s running for the seat as a write-in candidate.

Stearns, the executive director of the Royal River Conservation Trust in Yarmouth, has told the Kennebec Journal that city government needs skeptical voices like his, saying that “teamwork requires tough questions.”

Walters, a filmmaker and former real estate developer, said he’d be a promoter of the city’s nightlife and other factors aiming at “making Hallowell be the not just cultural hub of central Maine, but the coolest spot in Maine, period.”

Dufour, a lobbyist for the Maine Municipal Association, has touted her years of experience on municipal issues and said that she’ll prioritize investing in parks, roads and the city’s downtown.

Morrissette, a retired teacher and musician who led a recent challenge of a Hallowell Water District rate increase, called that effort “the kind of collaboration we need to develop and encourage.”

Mayor Mark Walker, who isn’t up for re-election and is organizing the 6 p.m. forum, said he’ll likely moderate it. Each candidate will have up to five minutes to introduce themselves to attendees before taking prepared questions from Walker and then from the public.

Michael Shepherd — 370-7652

mshepherd@centralmaine.com

Twitter: @mikeshepherdme

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