AUGUSTA — Daniel Emery and Jeffrey Bilodeau were elected to the City Council Tuesday.
Emery, with 2,345 votes, beat out David Smith, who received 1,770 votes.
Bilodeau’s 2,931 votes topped Corey Vose’s 1,550 votes.
Emery will take the at-large council seat vacated by William Stokes when he was elected mayor.
“I’m very appreciative of the opportunity and want to thank everybody who supported me,” Emery said Tuesday. “I am really looking forward to doing some great things with the people of Augusta.”
Emery will fill the remaining two years of Stokes’ former term. He could be sworn in as soon as this week, according to City Councilor Patrick Paradis.
Emery, 28, a marketing specialist for Maine State Credit Union, is a member of the Augusta Historic Preservation Commission and co-chairman of the Augusta Downtown Alliance Promotion Committee.
He said the most important issues facing the city are business development, job creation and education.
Emery’s opponent Smith, 61, chief pilot for Maine Instrument Flight, has served on the Planning Board for many years, and is currently a trustee of the Greater Augusta Utility District and member of the Augusta Airport Advisory Committee.
Bilodeau, 43, deputy officer for mobilization and readiness at Camp Keyes in Augusta, has served as national chairman for the Army National Guard’s Mobilizations and Readiness from 2006 to 2011.
Bilodeau, who was at the polls at Augusta City Center as the vote totals came in, declined to comment on his victory.
During the campaign, he said the most important issues for the city are the economy and jobs.
He also said it is important for the city to build a deeper sense of community.
Bilodeau’s opponent, Vose, 31, commodity category manager for PFG NorthCenter in Augusta, is chairman of the Planning Board and a member of the Augusta Downtown Alliance Promotion Committee.
Both Emery and Bilodeau received more votes than their opponents in each of the city’s four voting wards.
Voters also approved two local bonds, together totalling just less than $1.5 million.
A $1.1 million, 15-year bond will fund the reconstruction of parts of Patterson and School streets and, if there is enough money, other streets in the neighborhood between Bangor and Cony streets.
The loan will be paid back in annual installments from proceeds from the city’s Cony Circle tax increment financing, or TIF, district.
It was approved by a vote of 2,982 to 1,756.
The other bond, approved by a vote of 3,059 to 1,655, will provide about $356,000 for improvements at Gilbert Elementary School, including new windows and better accessibility to the building for people with disabilities.

Copy the Story Link