MADISON — Former Planning Board and school board member Paul Fortin said he will work toward more openness in town government after he unseated the chairman of the Board of Selectmen Tuesday.
Fortin won the election 334-280 over Robert Hagopian, 65, who had served on the five-member board for 12 years and was the board chairman.
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Fortin, 56, said as selectman he plans to work with fellow board members and Town Manager Dana Berry to bring more transparency to board meetings, with fewer executive sessions, which are closed to the public.
“I believe in the past that a number of items could have been discussed and deliberated in public forum,” he said. “I will do everything I can to talk about as much as possible in public so the citizens of the town will be aware of the issues and understand what the board is trying to accomplish.”
He said some of the meetings held during the debate over bringing natural gas lines to Madison should have been held in the public session, but were not. Fortin said he was against the town owning the gas line and sought to convince selectmen and the town manager to let Kennebec Valley Gas Co. make the investment.
He and others who supported his position ultimately prevailed.
Summit Natural Gas of Maine Inc. subsequently agreed to purchase KV Gas and the proposal has been submitted to the Maine Public Utilities Commission for approval. Summit is a subsidiary of Summit Utilities of Colorado.
Fortin said he would like to see more Madison residents attend selectmen’s meetings and will work toward staggering those meetings with school board meetings, which for many years have been held on the same night.
In other voting Tuesday incumbent Town Clerk/Treasurer Kathy Estes was re-elected as a write-in candidate. Estes had not signed her nomination papers, so space for that position was blank on Tuesday’s ballot.
In the only other contested race Tuesday, Charles Worster defeated Brandon Hagopian for a seat on the Madison Electric Works Board of Directors.
Doug Harlow — 612-2367
dharlow@centralmaine.com
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