ANSON — Three people are competing for one selectman seat on the Nov. 8 ballot.

Candidates Douglas Cahill, Brenda Garland and Philip Turner are seeking to serve out the remaining five months of former selectman Darrol Bartlett’s term.

* Cahill, 70, said he wants to be a selectman to keep the tax rate low.

Town departments should have the equipment they need to be safe and do their work, he said, but they shouldn’t get everything they want. The fire department needs a new fire truck, for example, but it shouldn’t get one with a price tag of $400,000, he said.

Also, the sewer rate in North Anson is too high for the small number of users, he said. He’d rather see North Anson residents pay the user fee, while taxpayers across the entire town support the debt service and cost of maintenance of the sewer system.

Cahill said he supports having a natural gas pipeline in the region, but not one owned by the town of Madison, saying he doesn’t believe that town should go into a large amount of debt. Kennebec Valley Gas Co. is also competing to build the pipeline from Richmond to Madison.

Cahill was a selectman for six years before being ousted in March 2009 by current selectman John Bryant. Cahill said he’s ready to help lead the town again.

“I like helping people,” he said. “I like being involved in things.”

Cahill is semi-retired, working part-time for his own company, Equipment Appraisal Service. He owns rental property in North Anson and is the town’s Emergency Management Agency director.

In the last 50 years, in Maine and other states, he has worked as a heavy equipment operator, mechanic, garage foreman, equipment superintendent, truck driver and logger.

He was a firefighter with the North Anson Fire Department for more than a dozen years in the 1960s and 70s when there were two separate fire departments in town.

He’s a 1960 high school graduate of Higgins Classical Institute in Charleston.

* Garland, 48, said her work as a paramedic requires showing respect and building trust — traits she would use as selectman.

“We go in people’s homes at their most vulnerable,” she said. “You’ve really got to have trust and respect for the people you deal with, and loyalty.”

She is a paramedic for the Upper Kennebec Valley Ambulance Service in Bingham and works as a certified nursing assistant at Maplecrest Rehabilitation & Living Center in Madison. In addition, she is a personal support specialist, caring for disabled people in their homes.

She wants to be a selectman because “you have a voice to change. It’s what you hear from the community,” she said.

“If I have any gripes, if I don’t run, how am I going to change things?” she said.

One of her biggest concerns, she said, is the impact higher taxes have on people with fixed incomes. “Taxes are a big issue. Not just for myself but for the elderly,” she said.

The town does need a new firetruck, she said, but the price has to be reasonable.

Her father-in-law, Robert Garland, was an Anson selectman for decades, she said, and instilled in his family — particularly the women — the importance of civic duty.

“He said as women we have to vote,” she said. She ran for selectman once before but didn’t win.

“It would be great” if natural gas was piped to the area, she said, adding she would need to do more research before supporting Madison’s pipeline project or the one proposed by Kennebec Valley Gas.

Garland worked for the Anson-Madison-Starks Ambulance Service for 18 years. She has volunteered to coach and train participants in the Special Olympics. She and her husband, Bill, owned Double J Stables for about 12 years.

She received her paramedic training at Kennebec Valley Community College and nursing assistant training at Madison’s adult education program.

* Turner, 52, said he plans to be a responsible, fresh face on the board of selectmen.

“Hopefully I could bring some accountability on the board,” he said.

He has been unemployed since January 2010, he said, but has a background in pulp and paper and road construction. That’s why he has returned to school to get a certificate from Kennebec Valley Community College in Fairfield in pulp and paper technology.

As a selectman, he said he’d like the villages of Anson to work together more. The lower and upper villages have different post offices, exchange codes and sewer entities.

“It’s always like an ‘us and them,'” he said.

With many homes for sale and fewer businesses relocating to Anson, the town’s biggest problems are money and lack of jobs, he said, adding he would be more welcoming than current leadership of prospective businesses.

In terms of energy, he said he supports Madison’s proposed project to build a natural gas pipeline from Richmond to Madison.

He said he has nothing against competitor Kennebec Valley Gas, but thinks a town-owned pipeline would offer lower rates to consumers because it wouldn’t be as focused on turning a fast profit.

Madison is “not a for-profit organization,” he said, adding he hopes Anson will benefit from the cheaper source of fuel.

His experience in the construction industry would help as a selectman when dealing with road issues, he said. He previously operated heavy equipment as part of a crew working on roads and parking lots for Pike Industries.

He also worked for 17 years at the Rumford paper mill when it was owned by MeadWestvaco.

He holds an associate degree in automotive heavy equipment technology from what is now Eastern Maine Community College.

Turner has never officially served as selectman, though he did win as a write-in candidate last March.

He lost the seat after his opponent won a recount. He had handed out adhesive labels bearing his name for people to place on the ballot, not knowing it was against the rules, he said.

Erin Rhoda — 612-2368

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