GARDINER — Four candidates are competing in November for three at-large spots on the Gardiner City Council.
Incumbents Rusty Greenleaf and Timothy Cusick are running for another term on the seven-person council, while the third at-large council member, Kathy Brown, has opted not to run.
Marc Cone and Joseph “Jay” Simanski have also joined the race as potential newcomers to the City Council.
Greenleaf, 55, was appointed to the City Council August 2021 and won a full three-year term later that year. He has worked at O’Connor Auto Park for nearly 13 years, overseeing transportation, maintenance and safety.
He said he is proud the city has filled the vacant spots at the Gardiner Business Park, and he hopes to prioritize downtown business growth in the future.
Greenleaf and fellow incumbent Cusick, who has been on the council for eight years, both said upgrading facilities should be at the top of the list of priorities for the next City Council. The city recently completed a study of the city’s aging buildings, which both said should be acted on as soon as possible.
“We really need to find some land and get working on getting those buildings built so they’re not in such disarray as they are now,” Cusick, 63, said. “The buildings are literally falling apart around us. We haven’t done anything for those buildings in years, and it’s starting to catch up with us.”
Cusick also said he is proud of the work the city has put into business revitalization, filling vacant spots downtown and at the Gardiner Business Park. He said he hopes to see more development along the Brunswick Avenue corridor going forward.
Simanski, 53, co-owns a downtown Gardiner restaurant — Lisa’s Legit Burritos — with his wife, and said he would be able to bring a local business owner’s perspective to future business park and downtown revitalization talks.
Simanski, who also helps run and operate a Lisa’s Legit Burritos in Augusta, is a member of the Augusta Downtown Alliance board of directors.
He said he is not particularly politically oriented, but that he wants to be civically engaged and use his experience from 20 years of living in Gardiner. He said he has been increasingly attending meetings of the City Council and other committees to learn more about the city’s governance.
“As a small business owner downtown, I have a good perspective on what it takes and what it means to live in Gardiner and work to in Gardiner, as well as to run a small business in Gardiner,” Simanski said. “Those are my qualifications.”
Cone, 63, is a lifelong resident of Gardiner. He works as the executive director of the Mid Atlantic Regional Air Management Association, which provides services to air quality regulatory agencies along the East Coast.
Before beginning that position in 2019, Cone was the director for six years of the Maine Bureau of Air Quality, a branch of the state’s Department of Environmental Protection.
Cone is also running for the Maine School Administrative District 11 School Board, on which he served from 2009 to 2018. He said he hopes to win both positions and serve as a natural liaison between the council and board, improving communication and collaboration, especially because the school budget is more than 35% of Gardiner’s overall spending.
“That direct conduit on both City Council and School Board is an opportunity that hasn’t been taken,” Cone said, “but I’m willing to try to see how that could manifest itself.”
The four candidates plan to participate in a forum scheduled for 5:30 p.m. Sunday at Gardiner City Hall at 6 Church St. The event is to be livestreamed on the city’s website — gardinermaine.com.
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