Fayette voters will see a lot of choices for municipal office on the June 14 ballot.

Four people are seeking two seats as selectmen and three people, including the incumbent, are seeking a single seat on the Fayette School Committee. All the terms of office are three years.

Also before the election, there will be a candidates’ night at 7 p.m. June 8 at Starling Hall, sponsored by the Friends of Starling Hall. Voting takes place from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. June 14 at Starling Hall, and the business portion of the Town Meeting follows on June 18.

Here is a look at the candidates for selectmen:

• Lacy Badeau, 37, who previously was elected as a write-in to finish an unexpired term as selectwoman, is seeking to return after an absence of about five years.

“I just want to make sure that Fayette remains an affordable place to live for people and that we address some of the infrastructure issues, like the roads and at the school,” Badeau said. “Fayette is a great place to live, and there’s a lot of great people in this town. It’s a great community.” She has lived in the town all her life.

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Badeau works part time for Regional School Unit 73 and earned a degree in business and economics from the University of Maine at Farmington.

• Nancy Cronin, 45, who has spent a number of years serving on the town’s Budget Committee, is looking to move to the Board of Selectmen. She said she is a social conservative.

“I believe that our school needs enough money to function well, and I believe that we need to take care of our elderly,” she said. “When you look at small towns today, there’s a tremendous amount of pressure to do things in a cost-effective way. I think I can help.”

Cronin, who went to Cony High School, is executive director of the Maine Developmental Disabilities Council. She has a son at Fayette Central School.

• Richard Davis, 69, is seeking his first public office.

“At the time I signed up to run for the selectman’s position, they didn’t have anybody signed up,” Davis said. “Now there’s four, and I’m sure they’re all fine people. It just would be nice to have a local person that knows the town a little bit.”

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A 44-year Fayette resident, Davis retired from Verso Paper in Jay, where he was an electrician.

“Now that I’m retired and have a little extra time, I thought I could give back,” Davis said. “Fayette’s a nice little town. It’s been really good to me and my family.”

He went to Jay High School and worked in a shoe factory before spending three years in the U.S. Army, including 18 months in Vietnam.

He and his wife, Gail, have five grown children, 11 grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.

• Bob Weimont, 67, has lived on Parker Pond in Fayette full time for the past six years and part time for the prior 16 years while he worked in South Portland as an administrator with the Maine Community College System, where he spent 36 years.

Now retired, he’s a volunteer driver with the Neighbors Driving Neighbors Program, works with a group helping to restore Starling Hall, helps maintain some trails on Kennebec Land Trust land, and is active in the Parker Pond Association and with a group of citizens working to rebuild a community connection to the former Elizabeth Arden Estate.

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“I really feel like I’d like to be able to help the community and be an involved citizen,” he said.

He said he’s “an advocate for education at all levels” and believes in being fiscally responsible, “always keeping in mind that you’re spending people’s money.”

Weimont has a bachelor’s degree from Colby College and a master’s from the University of Maine in educational administration.

For the school board, Alanna Stevenson is seeking another term, and she faces two challengers, Raymond Braithwood and Tammy Maxwell.

Here is a look at the school board candidates:

• Braithwood, 40, is seeking his first public office. He said he considered running the previous year as well because the family is at the school so much.

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“I have six kids,” Braithwood said. “My oldest is a sixth-grader and the youngest is in pre-K.”

He said he has some concerns about children spending too much time being trained to take standardized tests.

“I’m fine with standardized testing to find your standing against a larger pool, to see where people need to have help,” he said. “Standardized tests are really for the child and the child only. It’s turned into a grade of the teacher and the school.”

Braithwood is a computer science engineer who graduated from the University of Pennsylvania and works for Innovative Defense Technologies. He and his family moved to Fayette in 2011, and he has taught computer programming to fourth- and fifth-graders at Fayette Central School for two of the last three years.

• Maxwell, 49, grew up on a farm in Fayette and attended Fayette Central School. She then lived in Livermore Falls, moving back to Fayette four years ago.

While her three children are grown, “I’m now starting over with custody of a 4-year-old grandson,” she said, explaining her interest in running for the school board.

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“This is a good way to see what goes on in the school and to make sure he is getting special services,” she said. “He was born with a hearing disability. It’s a great group of people, and I look very forward to working with them.”

Maxwell said she spent 15 years as a Girl Scout leader, never sought public office previously, and is retired because of a disability.

“I never have done anything like this ever in my life,” she said. “I figure I’m the new fresh mind. One of my main goals is to make sure they keep music, library and gym — things that children need — and not just the academics.”

• Stevenson, who is an English teacher at Maranacook Middle School in Readfield, and a current member of the Fayette board, did not respond to multiple attempts to contact her. She completed the remaining year of a board member who resigned.

Betty Adams — 621-5631

badams@centralmaine.com

Twitter: @betadams


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