WINSLOW — Two-term Councilor Ken Fletcher, junior high school committee member William Sadulsky and former Fourth of July committee member Jeff West are running for a pair of three-year terms on the Town Council.

Fletcher, 70, first was elected to the council in 2010 and previously served in the Maine House of Representatives for eight years. Fletcher worked at Scott Paper Co. for 25 years before retiring and entering politics, and he was also director of the governor’s energy office from 2011 to 2013.

He thinks the council has done a good job at controlling spending and hopes to see the state reverse its cuts to revenue cost sharing, which he said shifted more costs onto local governments.

“I’m hoping that we will get a change at the next election so we get representatives who understand that,” Fletcher said.

He also thinks that local officials have to work together with legislators to address statewide problems.

West, 44, has worked at a local communications company for more than 22 years. He would not say which company he worked for because he did not know what the repercussions would be, he said. West was also on the Winslow Fourth of July committee for 17 years and has worked as a coach of several sports teams in Winslow. He’s also worked with the Fire Department and ambulance service.

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West said running for a council seat is something he’s always wanted to do.

“People can either sit back and complain about things or they can try and make a difference,” West said. “I try to get out there and be involved in the community and whatnot.”

Sadulsky, 69, is a retired Scott Paper Co. worker of 35 years who has never run for an elective position before but was on the study committee for Winslow Junior High School. He declined to provide a photo of himself, saying he is “not a politician” and is running to work against what he sees as “corruption” in the management of the town.

“I want to represent the people of the town of Winslow,” he said in an interview. One thing he’d like to do, he said, is make it easier for residents to speak at meetings.

“I believe if (people) had a voice, if they could get up and speak … that they’d be there (at meetings), more people would be there,” he said.

Fletcher said he’s running for a council seat again because “there are some pretty important decisions that we’re going to have to be addressing in the next couple of years,” such as street maintenance and school consolidation.

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“I believe my experience would be helpful as we do make those decisions,” he said.

Fletcher said one of his priorities is to keep the property tax rate affordable. The town is retiring some debt and it is still growing, so he is optimistic about where Winslow is going.

“I think that if we just keep going in the direction that we’re going, then we should be in a pretty good position,” he said.

West, an independent, said the councilors so far have done a good job of controlling the town’s finances, and that he also wants to prevent tax increases.

“Whatever we can do as a community to keep that from happening, I think is a benefit to everybody,” he said. He did not have any specific plans for keeping taxes down, but said he would look at “everything as a whole” if elected and that he supports a “common-sense approach” to cutting and spending town money.

West has lived in Winslow all his life, he said, and takes “a lot of pride in this town.”

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“I just look forward to being able to work for the people of the town of Winslow (if elected),” he said.

Sadulsky, also an independent, said he also wants to keep taxes low.

“The town of Winslow’s spending a lot of money they shouldn’t be spending,” he said, though he did not have specific examples of what he’d like to cut.

Other candidates on the Nov. 8 ballot are Earl Coombs for a School Board seat; Karen Andrus and Wanda Terp for two library trustee seats; and Karl Dornish for a Kennebec Water District trustee board seat.

Madeline St. Amour — 861-9239

mstamour@centralmaine.com

Twitter: @madelinestamour


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