AUGUSTA — Seven candidates will fight for three contested seats on the City Council on Election Day.

Four candidates seeking either of the two at-large spots up for election on the council Nov. 5 are: Raegan LaRochelle, a consultant and leader of the local group Augusta First; Heather Pouliot, president of the Augusta Downtown Alliance; incumbent Mark O’Brien, a longtime councilor and former chairman of the Augusta Board of Education; and Martha Witham, who previously worked as superintendent for multiple area school systems.

O’Brien, who has served on the Augusta Charter Commission, on the school board for 12 years and is currently finishing his fifth term on the City Council, is a member of the Capital Planning Commission. He has been involved in numerous community activities, including coaching youth sports, 11 years as a member of the Augusta Food Bank’s board, and currently serves as president of Capital Area Recreational Association.

One of the most significant issues facing the city, O’Brien said, is the need for a new police department. He said where a station is located is a secondary issue and councilors need to work to persuade residents to approve funding for a new station if and when it goes to them in a referendum vote. O’Brien said the Colonial Theater could be a major draw and the city should try to attract an art gallery to locate downtown, and should form a public arts commission to promote the arts in the community.

He said the city has made strides in lessening its environmental impact in recent years, adding solar panels to many buildings, installing a system to convert methane created at Hatch Hill landfill into electricity, and replacing streetlights citywide with more-efficient LED bulbs, saving both money and electricity; and the city is well on its way toward a goal of becoming a carbon-neutral community.

“I love the city, I enjoy working on the City Council, I think I’m good at it and I hope to return” to the council, O’Brien said at a recent candidates forum. “With me on the council, you know what you’re going to get — someone who comes prepared, is respectful to all, and not afraid to take a position even if it’s not with the majority.”

LaRochelle, an economic development consultant and owner of a property maintenance business, has coached youth sports for many years; has served with the Friends of Lithgow Library fundraising campaign, as a member of the Augusta Board of Trade, and as chairwoman of Augusta Housing Authority’s board of commissioners; and is a current member and chairwoman of the membership and marketing committee for Kennebec Valley YMCA.

She said top issues for the city include preserving and enhancing neighborhoods, developing the economy by attracting a couple of good-sized employers, addressing the opioid epidemic by communicating with state legislators about getting funding for prevention and treatment, and working with the owners to attract new development for the shopping centers from where Kmart is about to move out and where Sears already closed.

LaRochelle agreed with other candidates that restoring Colonial Theater could be huge for Augusta. But, she said that in addition to the arts, the city should also make Augusta known for its historical and cultural features, including Fort Western and museums.

“I feel I have a strong base by which to enter the council, by having a different perspective than other council members, being both a business person and economic development consultant, and a resident,” she said. “And I have the important perspective of having 12-year-old twins in Augusta schools, and I’d really just like Augusta to be a place, when they grow up, where they can have quality jobs and live. That’s my lens.”

Pouliot owns a graphic design and marketing company and, with her husband, purchases and redevelops real estate in Augusta. She is president of the Augusta Downtown Alliance Board of Directors, co-chairperson of the Augusta Comprehensive Plan Committee, mentor to five Cony girls through the Olympia Snowe Women’s Leadership Institute, a member of the board of Maine Children’s Trust, past chairwoman of the Planning Board, and a past board member and employee of the United Way of Kennebec Valley.

She said important issues for the city include establishing reliable public transportation, especially for elderly and disabled residents, maintaining public safety and working against drug abuse, providing education and training for the younger generation to help them develop skills sought after in the marketplace, and creating a master plan for city buildings.

Pouliot also said the city isn’t doing enough for recycling, should be in closer contact with the state Department of Economic and Community Development to seek grant and development opportunities, work to help make downtown a safe and desirable area, and encourage volunteerism and support the arts.

“I’m running for City Council because, as much as I love the city, I think there is a lot to be done, and I think I have the experience to lead us in the right direction,” Pouliot said. “I live by the ‘if not me, then who,’ motto. Meaning if I don’t make the effort to improve my city I can’t expect anybody else to. I’m very passionate about the city. I want to make sure kids and young adults that move here have a lot of opportunities.”

Witham, a retired educator who, while living in Millinocket served on the Zoning Board of Appeals and as a selectman, said she wants to give back to the city where her family goes back several generations, by serving on the City Council.

She said important issues for Augusta include improving people’s perceptions about the city, including by being more aggressive in encouraging the redevelopment of unused or unoccupied buildings, which she said would also improve neighborhoods, and make sure residents of all ages know what resources are available for them.

She said the Colonial Theater could be a keystone for development of an arts community in Augusta, and city councilors should help ensure the downtown is an attractive area to visit and to host cultural events. Witham said one of the biggest things Augusta has, and needs to do more with, is the Kennebec River.

She said she’d listen to constituents and get back to them when they contact her, and is not someone who’d just tell people what they want to hear.

“I believe my experiences as a superintendent, dealing with budgets, associations and unions, will serve me as a council member,” Witham said. “In developing multi-million-dollar school budgets, it is always necessary to balance needs with wants and keeping the tax rate reasonable for citizens.

“Being home now allows me to research and respond to taxpayers’ and constituents’ questions and concerns,” she added. “I want to make Augusta a place where my grandsons will want to live, hoping they will be the next generation to raise their families here.”

 

WARD 3

In the three-way race for the Ward 3 City Council seat, left vacant in June when former Councilor Harold Elliott resigned because he was moving out of Augusta, Michael Michaud, the current Ward 3 representative on the Augusta Board of Education, squares off against Lisa Newell, president of Le Club Calumet in Augusta, and Stanley Koski, a former city councilor who, since leaving the council, has made multiple unsuccessful bids to return to the council.

Newell, who works for VA Maine Healthcare Systems-Togus, and volunteers for Howell House as a treasurer on its board of directors, said one of the most important issues for the city is dealing with the impact of the opioid epidemic. She said the city should establish policies to help address substance abuse, and help provide awareness in the community and encourage the creation of facilities where people can find treatment and get help.

Newell said continued development of the downtown area, especially in the arts, is key for the city’s economy.

“I think we need to revitalize some of the buildings that are empty and bring them back to life, either as businesses or housing,” she said. “I know the focus has been on the Colonial Theater and the arts. I think that would add to the downtown area.”

Newell said honesty, integrity, being fair and looking at all information before making a decision are critical core values of a city councilor.

Koski, a retired former Central Maine Power Co. engineer, who for some 30 years up into the 1990s volunteered to maintain traffic lights in the city, was an at-large councilor for six years.

He said the most important issues city councilors should take on include motivating people in the surrounding area to shop in Augusta, which he said would help the economy, and encourage people to move to Augusta to reverse a trend of decreasing population.

Koski said motivation and commitment are core values a city councilor should have, to do research when a difficult question comes up in order to make the right decision. He also emphasized his fiscal conservatism.

“All my life I’ve always believed there is almost always a better, more efficient way to accomplish a certain objective,” Koski said. “The mechanism of competition doesn’t exist in the public sector, so there is a tendency to keep doing things as they’ve been done in the past. I don’t go along with that. If we can get things accomplished with less expenditure of money, then that money is available to do other things.”

Michaud works for Gagne & Son concrete and owned the Play it Again Sports store until it closed in 2016. He is a former exalted ruler with the Augusta Elks Lodge who with his wife, Lina, and other volunteers, started a back-to-school program which, this year, helped about 500 greater Augusta area students by giving them backpacks, school supplies and other items at the Augusta Elks Club.

He sees honesty and integrity as core values a city councilor should have and said the most important thing the city council could do is continue the revitalization of neighborhoods to make Augusta attractive so more people move to the city.

Michaud said revitalizing the downtown area, including the Colonial Theater, could benefit all of Augusta’s neighborhoods, including those of Ward 3.

“There are beautiful apartment buildings down there, there are eateries, the Colonial Theater is starting to come to fruition, we’re making leaps and bounds with that, and that’s only going to increase people’s awareness of downtown,” he said. “And the more you do downtown, the farther you’re going to push development north up the hill and into Ward 3. We need to keep the downtown growing because that’s only going to make the rest of the neighborhoods in the city that much better and that much more attractive to people to move to Augusta, live in Augusta, and play in Augusta.”

Voters will also fill a vacancy on the council created when former Councilor Jennifer Day resigned from her at-large spot, which wasn’t due to expire until December 2020. Her seat will also be filled during the November election, but will be a special election to fill the remainder of the unexpired term. The winner of that seat will be sworn-in to fill the vacancy in November. The other candidates won’t take office until the start of the new year.

Former Councilor Darek Grant was the only candidate to return nomination papers to be on the November ballot to fill the remainder of Day’s term.

All races for the Augusta Board of Education are uncontested. Candidates for the school board, each of them incumbent members of the board, are Staci Fortunato (Ward 1), Jennifer Dumond (at-large) and Kati McCormick (Ward 4).

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