A half-dozen Wayne residents are running to serve on the town’s Select Board and will appear at a meet-the-candidates night at 7 p.m. Thursday evening at Cary Memorial Library.

Two of those candidates, Lloyd Irland and Cynthia Pettengill, are running for a two-year term expiring in 2020. That seat is available because the current Select Board chairman, Gary Kenney, is moving out of town and leaving the board.

The remaining four candidates are competing for a pair of three-year terms each expiring in 2021. The candidates for those two seats are Amy Black, Elaine Christopher, Stanley Davis and a current board member who is running for re-election, Stephanie Haines.

Voting for those candidates will happen from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Tuesday at the Ladd Recreation Center. On that day, voters from Wayne, Manchester, Mount Vernon and Readfield also will consider a proposed $17.9 million budget for Regional School Unit 38, also known as the Maranacook Area Schools. Wayne taxpayers would be responsible for $2.2 million of that amount.

A day after those elections, Wayne voters will return to the Ladd Recreation Center at 6 p.m. to consider a proposed $1.18 million town spending plan at Town Meeting. That proposal marks a 7 percent increase from the current year’s $1.1 million budget.

Given the proposed changes to the town, school and county budgets, local voters could see their property tax rate rise from $16.19 per $1,000 of valuation to $16.97 per $1,000, according to Wayne Town Manager Aaron Chrostowsky. That means the owner of a $100,000 property would have to pay $1,697 in taxes next year.

Besides the budget articles, residents also will be asked to approve several other items.

One of those is an application by the local organization Sustain Wayne for $50,000 in funding through the federal Community Development Block Grant Program, to help redevelop the town’s Masonic Hall into a community center. The town also needs voter approval to apply for a federal grant to redevelop tennis and basketball courts at the Ladd Recreation Center.

Voters also will decide whether to approve proposed amendments to the zoning and yard sale ordinances.

Several other uncontested elections will be held June 12. Three candidates are running for four open seats on the Budget Committee: Dallas Folk, James Perkins and David Stevenson. Gary Carr is running for one open seat on the RSU 38 board of directors. There are no registered candidates for one open seat on the local school committee.

In interviews, all the candidates for the Select Board openings spoke about themselves and their reasons for running.

AMY BLACK (THREE-YEAR TERM)

Black, 54, works as vice president of finance and administration for Maine Family Planning, an Augusta-based organization that helps run a network of 18 nonprofit health centers. She has two master’s degrees, one in accounting and the other in business administration, and has done accounting work for several other nonprofit organizations.

She Is on the town’s budget committee and has been active with other local organizations. She said she is running because her accounting skills would help the council as it considers how to spend the town’s money each year.

“One of the things I can do is review financial statements, and I’m good at reading policies,” she said. “I’m good at some of those things that aren’t very glamorous. I am interested in finding out more about the town’s workings and seeing whether there is anything I can do to help.”

She does not have a specific agenda and would approach the position with an open mind, she said. But she does think the town should consider supporting expanded broadband access in Wayne and implementing “reasonable regulations to support the viability of our lakes and ponds while preserving public access.”

ELAINE CHRISTOPHER (THREE YEARS)

Christopher, 67, is retired from a career working for Central Maine Power Co. but still does part-time accounting work for the utility. She has been on the town’s volunteer Fire Department for more than 25 years after becoming the department’s first female member and has served as its secretary and treasurer.

She’s running because she has heard complaints from residents about how the town is being run and wants to see if there is any truth to those complaints. She declined to cite specific complaints that she’s heard.

“I was hearing things that I just didn’t like,” she said. “I figured if I got in, I can see both sides of the story and find out what was going on.”

Christopher also said that she doesn’t have an agenda and that she thinks her intelligence and honesty would be an asset on the board. She said she believes the town should ensure its roads are in good condition and be mindful of any tax increases.

“I think I’m relatively intelligent and I would learn quickly,” she said in a candidate statement. “I’m conservative but open-minded, and I like to listen and gather all the pertinent information before I make a decision.”

STANLEY DAVIS (THREE YEARS)

Davis, 71, has served previously on the board and is running again because hopes to give back to the town. He has lived in Wayne since the early 1980s, and after his house burned down last year, he said, he and his wife received “tremendous support” from other residents.

A retired school counselor and therapist, he also has served on numerous other local committees, including the Planning Board and the school board, and said he is ready to work with other people.

“I feel like I know how to do that, and listen,” he said. “I don’t think I have a large number of solutions, but I want to listen and apply others’ ideas to do what’s best in town.”

Davis was chairman of the town’s school reorganization committee and supports keeping Wayne Elementary School open so that the town can try to attract parents of young children.

He also has helped lead the town’s Aging at Home initiative, and he said the town should consider how it could fund maintenance of the town’s roads and the construction of downtown sidewalks, possibly with the help of grant funding. Such infrastructure would help both the elderly and young get around, he said.

The town should also support any efforts that provide more state funding to local schools and reduce residents’ tax burden, Davis said.

STEPHANIE HAINES (THREE YEARS)

Haines, 65, who has served on the Board for 18 years, said she is running for re-election because she has the knowledge of local government and the time to put into the work.

“I am very budget-minded,” said Haines, who runs her own part-time business doing painting, cleaning, mowing and other work at people’s homes. “I’m conservative with taxpayers’ money and trying to get the most bang for your buck, especially with our roads. That’s the biggest part of the budget, as far as municipal costs go.”

Haines moved to Wayne 32 years ago and has served on several other local committees. She said that her distant ancestor, Elizabeth Wing, married Job Fuller, who is considered the first non-native settler in Wayne.

Because of the rising cost of educating the town’s students in RSU 38 and the decreasing number of students in town, the Select Board should form a committee to research the problem and try to keep taxes down, according to Haines. To grow the town’s waning Fire Department, she also wants local officials to consider expanding the town’s junior firefighter program.

Haines also supports efforts to expand broadband access to more remote parts of the town, a project that could require grant funding or taking out a bond.

LLOYD IRLAND (TWO YEARS)

Irland, 71, has lived in Wayne for 33 years. He has worked for the state and federal governments and taught at several universities. In Maine, he did land management and economic development work for the state. Since 1987, he has run a small forestry consulting business.

Irland is familiar with budgeting, policymaking and the workings of government, and thinks that knowledge would be valuable on the board.

In Wayne, Irland helped develop the town’s latest comprehensive plan, which was approved at Town Meeting in 2016, and he believes the research “gave me an understanding of the broad range of challenges our town faces.”

“It should become an agenda for the Select Board’s work,” Irland said about the comprehensive plan, in a statement about his candidacy.

The comprehensive plan has a number of recommendations for preserving the town’s natural resources, which some view as essential to the town’s economic development.

Irland also mentioned several issues he hopes the Select Board will take up, including replacing the town’s fire station, considering changes to its zoning rules, retaining the town’s tax-acquired property on Wilson Pond for conservation and recreation, helping determine the future of Wayne Elementary School, ensuring the water quality of the town’s lakes, and finding efficiencies in local spending.

CYNTHIA PETTENGILL (TWO YEARS)

Pettengill, 64, works as accounting technician for the state Department of Administration and Financial Services, helping to review, prepare and process travel documents for a range of government agencies, among other duties. She has done similar work for more than 40 years and also runs her own art gallery.

She has lived in Wayne off-and-on since 1984 and served on the Board in the past, including as chairwoman. She also has worked for the town as a substitute office assistant.

Pettengill said in an email that she’s running for the Select Board for three broad reasons: to be “intellectually challenged” after she retires, “to supplement my income doing a job that fulfills me,” and to serve her community.

“What I would bring to the position is experience as a former selectperson and chair, a familiarity with town office procedures because I once served as part-time substitute staff, and a comfortability with the decision making, conflict management, and leadership tasks that are required of the position,” she wrote in the email.

Pettengill said the town must focus on its rising taxes and aging populations and consider ways to attract younger residents. She also thinks the town must look at its comprehensive plan and zoning ordinance and consider ways to protect open land without restricting development.

Charles Eichacker — 621-5642

ceichacker@centralmaine.com

Twitter: @ceichacker