All four candidates seeking to fill the two available seats on the Readfield Select Board bring years of experience on various municipal committees and boards. And three of them have experience as selectmen in the town.

Just one person, Betty Morrell, a retired teacher and principal, is running to represent Readfield on the board of Regional School Unit 38, the Maranacook Area Schools. She is seeking an open full, three-year term. No one filed papers to run for a second school board seat that carries a one-year term. That post likely will be filled by write-in vote.

Signs for the various select board candidates populate the sides of Route 17, particularly near the Town Office where voting takes place 8 a.m.-8 p.m. June 14 at the same time residents vote on the 48 articles of town business.

Allen Curtis, 69, is an incumbent selectman who originally didn’t plan to run for re-election, but changed his mind when he saw just two other people had returned nominating petitions for the two seats prior to deadline — though a third would later file as well.

“I think the town should have a choice,” he said. “With just the two candidates, they would have automatically been in. I thought I should put my name back in the hat.”

He cites another reason as well: “I’ve seen the mood of the town and the camaraderie and the ability to work together improve so much over the past year that it’s very heart-warming.”

Curtis, who moved to Readfield in 1979, is self-employed at E-Rate New England, which offers technical services to schools throughout New England. He graduated from Delaware State University with a degree in electronic education and earned a master’s degree in business administration from Thomas College.

He has favored the use of a secret ballot, which was started in 2015 in place of a more traditional annual Town Meeting where the articles are decided on the floor.

“I want to see as many people in the town as possible be able to vote on the items. In an on-floor meeting, fewer people attend, and the vote can be influenced,” Curtis said, adding, “I’m a very strong proponent of managing budgets for efficiencies and cost savings.”

This is a first attempt to join the select board for John Parent, 70, who serves on both the Budget and Road committees in Readfield, where he has lived for the past 23 years.

Before that, when he lived in Greene, he spent nine years on the board of School Administrative District 52, plus served on the Budget and Roads committees and the Planning Board.

“Really since about the mid ’80s I’ve been involved in town government,” he said. “I never served on the select board. I guess this year seemed to be the year to throw my hat in the ring.”

Parent works for John Deere Equipment out of Long Island, New York, selling golf course maintenance equipment in Maine and New Hampshire. He graduated from Lewiston High School in 1964, following that with six years in the U.S. Marine Corps.

“I have said right up front that I am a believer in the on-floor town meeting, but I also like the fact that a lot of people turn out to vote on the warrant,” he said.

Parent recently worked with Kathryn Mills Woodsum to frame an ordinance would allow secret ballot to remain in place but add a meeting where people would be allowed to amend the articles. “Right now, the way I see it, the select board has 100 percent control of the articles and the dollar amount,” Parent said. “I want to put some of that power back to the residents, which is where I think it belongs.”

Woodsum, who is also running for a selectman’s seat, said 160 people signed a petition seeking to put that proposal on the ballot. However, the select board said the town’s legal counsel indicated it was not possible to do that.

Woodsum, 56, a math teacher at Mt. Blue High School in Farmington, where she has worked for 28 years, is currently chairwoman of the Readfield Budget Committee as well as the Solid Waste & Recycling Committee. She served two terms on the select board 2007-2013.

“Experience counts,” she said, quoting from her election signs. “I think it’s time for me to do more than be on the Budget Committee. I hope to work with people currently on the board to build more community in town.”

Some election signs carry both Parent’s and Woodsum’s names as well as the slogan “Building Community.”

Sandra Rourke, 71, has served two and a half years on the select board filling out a unexpired term. She was born and raised in Winthrop, and moved to Readfield 37 years ago. She used to have a hair salon in her home and continues to work part-time as a cosmetologist.

She is focused on keeping taxes low and retaining the secret ballot voting.

“I see taxes (have) gone way out of sight, plus I want to make sure I’m there to try to keep the voting the way it’s going by secret ballot so all the people can be heard,” Rourke said.

She sees herself as someone who can reunite factions within Readfield.

“Well, the town’s been split so bad that something needs to be done to mend it,” she said.

Betty Adams — 621-5631

badams@centralmaine.com

Twitter: @betadams

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