CHINA — Five candidates are asking for residents’ votes for three open seats on the town’s Select Board this November.
Residents Edwin Bailey, Tod Detre and Thomas Rumpf are seeking their first terms on the town’s five-person Select Board. Two candidates, Brent Chesley and Blane Casey, are incumbent councilors seeking reelection.
Voting is scheduled for 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. Nov. 5 at the China Town Office portable building at 571 Lakeview Drive. Absentee ballots are available at the Town Office through Oct. 31.
Members of China’s Select Board are elected to two-year terms and receive no compensation for serving on the board.
Each of the candidates was asked questions about their background, political experience and plans for the town if elected. Below are their responses. Blane Casey did not respond to requests to comment for this story.
EDWIN BAILEY
Bailey is a 62-year-old semi-retired lumber worker who serves on China’s Planning Board and working committee.
He sees fiscal responsibility as the primary tenet of his campaign, saying the town must do more to hamper rising taxes, fueled in recent years by budget increases at the town and county levels.
“My main concern is taxes. I would like to try to find ways to cut spending, which in turn should help to keep taxes affordable,” Bailey said. “I’m pretty outspoken so I guess I would rather be a participant rather than an onlooker.”
Bailey says he’s lived in China his entire life and that his wife Tammy previously owned Tam’s Route 3 Redemption Center in South China. Those experiences, he says, kept him in touch with his community and give him a fresh perspective on town politics.
BRENT CHESLEY
Chesley is 55 and co-owns Wyman & Simpson Inc., an infrastructure construction company based in Richmond.
He is an incumbent Select Board member finishing his first term in office. He is also a member of China’s Board of Appeals and chairs the town’s Tax Increment Financing Committee.
Chesley says his experience with municipal ordinance is one of his strengths. He aims to lower taxes while expanding emergency services and community events during his next term in office.
He also says that business development needs to be a higher priority for the town.
“I am running to use my experiences to make sound decisions going forward for the town of China, while being fair to all and keeping taxes as low as possible,” he said. “China has had a reputation as not being friendly to businesses, so I would like to work to change that stigma.”
TOD DETRE
Detre, 46, works as a system administrator for the University of Maine System. He says municipal infrastructure projects like internet and transportation access would be his top priority if elected.
Detre has served since 2017 on China’s Broadband Committee, which aims to provide internet access to all residents through fiber optic cables.
If elected, he aims to increase cooperation in the town office between China’s Select Board and other municipal committees.
“The Select Board needs to do a better job of listening to the other town committees,” Detre said. “The people in these committees are volunteering their time to help the town. It can be disheartening to do a lot of work on something, only to have it dismissed without consideration by the Select Board.”
THOMAS RUMPF
Rumpf, 55, is the chairman of China’s Budget Committee and works as a senior estimator on steel bridges for Atlantic Bridge and Engineering.
He is also the president of the China Four Seasons Club, a position he’s held since 2017. The organization maintains ATV and snowmobiling trails in China and puts on a number of town events, including an annual ice fishing derby.
Rumpf said his experience on the Budget Committee inspired him to run for Select Board because of the committee’s restrained scope due to town ordinances.
He says China’s rising municipal budget and stagnating public participation in politics are among his top priorities.
“As chair of the Budget Committee for the last few years I have decided that the Budget Committee has little to no say in what happens with the budget due to current ordinance,” Rumpf wrote in an email. “I feel that the next step for me is to run for Select Board.”
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