GARDINER — In a unanimous vote of elected officials present, Simon West has been selected as the District 2 representative to the Gardiner City Council for the rest of this year.

West was the only Gardiner resident to indicate interest in the seat formerly held by Kerstin Gilg, who resigned from the City Council in June because he was moving out of the city.

“This is something I’ve always been interested in,” West said Friday.

When West, 35, moved to Gardiner in 2020, he said he knew he wanted to be involved with the community, but the COVID-19 pandemic sidelined that ambition for a period of time.

“My hope is as issues or problems arise, I can help be part of opportunities to find valuable solutions,” he said.

District 2 comprises a wedge-shaped territory of west-central Gardiner, stretching from Elm Street, along Brunswick Avenue corridor, to the Timberwood Drive area.

West, who grew up in Winslow, graduated from the University of Maine at Augusta with a business degree and recently earned a master of business administration degree from Thomas College. He’s currently the finance and human resources manager for the Maine State Chamber of Commerce.

He said he was drawn to Gardiner because it has the amenities he was looking for and when he and his fiancée were looking for a place to live in 2020, it offered options in their price range and met a lot of their needs.

“I have a deep passion for community service,” he said, “and I look to serve in a very nonpartisan manner to be a voice and an open ear for the people of Gardiner and an advocate for the businesses that exist and wish to come here.”

West has been assigned to the city’s Solid Waste Committee, and anticipates getting to work on that soon.

This year, Gardiner’s three at-large council seats and the mayor’s seat are up for election.

Gilg was elected to a two-year term in November 2021 representing District 2; normally that seat would be up for election in 2023.

In Gardiner, in the event of a vacancy, the City Council chooses who will fill the seat until the next election.

Because the next election is in November, West said he’s also circulating a petition to gather 25 names to appear on the ballot.

Petitions for all open seats on the Gardiner City Council are due to Gardiner City Hall by noon on Sept. 2.

“I want to be involved in the community I live in,” he said. “It’s really about the town people and the businesses and helping the community. It’s not a stepping-stone. I don’t have larger aspirations outside of Gardiner.”

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