Future of Eliot highlighted by five Select Board candidates

Ralph Morang
William Widi

ELIOT, Maine — Voters will choose Select Board members on July 14 in the town election that was postponed from June 9 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Write-in candidate Jean Hardy and incumbents Richard Donhauser and Robert McPherson are competing for the two 3-year terms. While Donhauser and McPherson filed nomination papers with the required number of signatures, and their names will appear on the ballot, Hardy said she chose not to seek signatures due to the pandemic and became a write-in candidate. To have their votes counted, town ordinance requires write-in candidates to declare their candidacies at the same deadline as nominated candidates.

State law allows towns to require this process for write-in candidates. Votes for declared write-ins are counted and those of non-declared write-ins are not counted, unless there are no nominated candidates or nominated candidates withdrew by election day.

There is one open 2-year term for Select Board because John “Jack” Murphy resigned in February for health reasons. Megan Weeks and William Widi filed for that seat.

There are no nominated or declared write-in candidates for two open seats on the Budget Committee.

There are two open seats for Eliot on the SAD 35 Board of Directors. Current member Susan Berman is not running again and Chair Keri Tice resigned effective Election Day, leaving two years on her term. No one has filed for those seats.

There are no declared candidates for the Budget Committee or the SAD 35 school board. However, write-in candidates for both have come forward.

Budget Committee incumbent Ed Strong is a write-in candidate for that committee. A 10-year member of the committee, Strong said he was in Florida, with COVID-19 restrictions and could not return to Eliot to take out nomination papers and collect the necessary signatures.

“I’ve spent 20 years working with the Budget Committee and the Select Board to come up with a budget that gets everything done and keeps taxes down,” Strong said.

Berman is finishing a three-year term on the School Board. She has chosen to be a write-in candidate for the remaining two years of Tice’s term.

Berman said she had thought of leaving the board since her youngest child has graduated, but she chose the two-year term “to provide continuity and stability on the board with all the uncertainty involving what school looks like going forward.” Berman said she did not take out nomination papers and get the necessary signatures because of COVID-19.

Jenn Therrien is a write-in candidate for the other open Eliot seat on the school board, a three-year term.

The following are statements from the candidates.

For the two 3-year Select Board terms:

Jean Hardy

For over 35 years, I have been a resident of Eliot, living in a house that was built in 1750 and is located at the end of the Littlebrook Airpark runway. I am grateful to live in Eliot for we have clean air, clean water, and the people in Eliot are caring people.

For over 45 years, I have been a certificated pilot, and have flown across the country. Every time I leave Eliot, I am thankful to return. For over 20 years, I was married to Jack Hardy and when he died in November 2000, I was devastated. But as many people find life goes on and so has mine.

The COVID-19 virus has changed a lot in the way we live our daily lives. In March, I looked at my neighbors who have freely given time, money and compassion to people and asked myself what could I do to serve my community? It is with this sense of service that I am seeking a three-year position on the Select Board. I have no illusion this will be easy to do. Serving in a position such as this requires time, which we will all run out of.

I am greatly concerned with the ever-increasing property taxes. I am hoping to retire and when I do, I would like to continue to live in my home and not stress if I have enough money to buy food, medicine and electricity or have to decide these basic needs versus paying my property taxes.

While I can see we in Eliot may, at some point, need a new Town Hall, I believe not now. Eliot should not be paying for anything new or extra. We do not know what the state budget will look like, and we need to plan for the worst and pray for the best in terms of the state budget. We need to keep our town employees for as long as the town can, instead of spending money on new buildings because people, including town employees, are the strength of this town. The same goes for the school board budget. We need to keep our teachers and find ways to keep our budget flat line. I believe the $30,000 in the proposed budget for a Town Hall could be better spent on property tax relief for seniors, or food to feed our students, or feed those families who have lost their employment.

I am running as a declared write-in candidate. I did this because I did not want to risk anyone’s life from possible contamination from the COVID-19 virus just to sign a piece of paper to nominate me, although many people were willing to sign. Safety first. That has been my motto throughout my flying career that I carry into other parts of my life. That safety first and plan for the future is what I will carry to the Select Board.

Richard Donhauser

As a 41-year resident of Eliot, I successfully ran for the Select Board in 2017, because I believed that Eliot should have managed and sustainable growth that preserves all the wonderful qualities that have come to define our community. As a certified public accountant, former Eliot small business owner, past auditor of the town, and now the chairman of the Select Board, I have broad experiences to help manage the town’s affairs.

During my three years on the Select Board, we have made great strides in a number of areas, including: launching the solar panels at the transfer station and converting town lighting to LEDs reducing the environmental impact and electricity costs; successfully renegotiated the police and public works union contracts; and established an innovative and impactful plan to leverage a state tax incentive program, known as a TIF, to build self-funding infrastructure along Route 236. Ultimately, the TIF project will provide residents greater control and options over the types of businesses on Route 236.

As the Select Board chairman, I have worked diligently, respectfully, and transparently with the other members of the board to reduce the ever-growing real estate tax burden for our residents. I have been honored to support the town staff, department heads and the town manager who have continued to selflessly provide critical town services during this extraordinary difficult period due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Qualifications/education: BS Business Administration – Butler University; master,s degree in taxation – Bentley College; Certified Public Accountant; Eliot town auditor for 15 years, successful small business owner.

Robert McPherson

I have been a Select Board member for an 18-month term. It was a position I was not expecting to run for in the beginning but I have always been intrigued and involved in town politics at some capacity. I am a lifelong resident of Eliot and have been an active member In the Eliot Fire Department for over 36 years. I find volunteering in town to be an essential part of town growth. I have always thought that being an active volunteer is much more productive then sitting back and watching things take place from my window. My initial goal when I first became a Select Board member was to listen to the residents, and I hope to continue to do this. There are so many changes taking place in this town which is expected. I look forward to assisting with those changes, but also do my part in “keeping the small town feel.”

For one 2-year term on the Select Board:

Megan Weeks

Megan was born and raised in Portsmouth and has been an Eliot resident for 21 years. She is a graduate of the University of New Hampshire with a business degree and went on to be schooled and certified in her field of technical sales in instrumentation for process applications. She has been in this industry for 25 years and holds certifications in gas detection, level, pressure, temperature and flow, power metering specialist, hazardous-rated instruments and much more. She has raised her son Alex in Eliot and he is a 2016 Marshwood High School graduate and 2020 UNH graduate who continues to live in the town. She is happily married to Larry Zotara and she enjoys reading, gardening, cooking, animals of all types and hockey.

Megan has loved Eliot since she was a small child and had family who lived here. It was the first place she wanted to live when they bought a home and started a family. Her biggest love of Eliot is that it still holds true to a lot of older values like farming, family-oriented events, maintaining older architecture and preserving history. She would like it to remain a community driven by those same values. In 2019, Megan was awarded “The Spirit of America Award” by Eliot and York County for extensive fundraising efforts to help the community. She helped raise significant funds while the treasurer of the Marshwood/Traip Hockey Booster Club and that fundraising eliminated tuition for players for three years and paid for ice-time and sports equipment as needed. This was approximately $25,000 fundraised each year. After leaving the hockey booster club Megan became a friend of the William Fogg Library where for the last four years she has worked endlessly to help raise much needed funds to help the library offer the best support and resources for this town. She has served as vice president and president on this board. Over the last four years she and the loyal friends’ members have raised over $150,000 for the library.

Megan is passionate about whatever she believes in and always puts everything she has into a project or event. Getting things done is by “doing” and she hopes the community knows she has done what she has over the years to help the community and others and help alleviate some financial burdens. As a Select Board member, she would like to help the town grow in a positive way to reflect changes for the future but holding on to yesterday’s values. Eliot needs to be a shining star in the Seacoast community.

William Widi

Growing up in this unique, beautiful place has been the real pleasure of my life. We can define a lot of our identity from where we come from and where we are going. I am a product of our schools. I survived and thrived having cancer with the support of many of this town’s great people. I have coached over 300 boys and girls on 17 teams from learn-to-play hockey up through high school. I created a beautiful produce farm on River Road nine years ago that has fed this town for years, but especially in the last few months of COVID-19. I wrote an agri-tourism ordinance to support land preservation, local people and local farms. I have lived and experienced life in a lot of different ways. If you want someone with the ability to put themselves in your shoes, the ability to listen instead of impose their opinion on you and the judgment to make the fair and reasonable decision even if unpopular than I am the candidate for you. My candidacy is about judgment. If elected, I will make sure Eliot not only thrives, but blossoms!

Ballot items

The ballot includes town budget items and ordinance changes for voter approval.

The state referendum ballot includes two bond issues, one for $15 million for high-speed internet in under-served areas, and one for $105 million for highways and bridges.

There are state primary ballots for county and state offices and for the U.S. Senate.

The town is encouraging voters to apply for absentee ballots. Due to the pandemic, safety measures during in-person voting will increase wait times.

To apply for absentee town and state ballots online, by mail or by telephone, see the town website, www.eliotmaine.org, and click on “Election Central.” To receive a primary ballot a voter must be enrolled in the Democratic, Green Independent or Republican party. Voters not currently enrolled in a party may enroll anytime before the election at the town clerk's office or on Election Day at the registrar table before receiving ballots.

Megan Weeks