BOWDOINHAM
Voters re-elected Doug Tourtelotte to the Board of Selectmen and elected newcomer Wendy Cunningham in a four-way race for two seats on the board Tuesday.
Tourtelotte drew the most votes with 304. Cunningham received 268 votes, Peter Lewis received 194 votes and Dean Beckwith had 95 votes.
The town clerk reported there were 556 votes cast out of 2,345 registered voters in town — a 24 percent turnout.
Cunningham thanked the people of Bowdoinham for electing her and said she is looking to do her best to move the community forward and meet its needs.
She added that she has a lot of respect for the two candidates, Tourtelotte and Lewis, who also participated in a candidate forum last week.
At that forum there was a friendly tone, which has been the case in Bowdoinham recently though in past years there have been issues triggering a lack of the kind of civil discourse she is looking to continue because, “you’re not going to be able to get things done,” without being cordial and respectful.”
Tourtelotte said this morning the town is lucky it had so many people run for the open selectmen seats, noting he thought it would be difficult to get people to run.
“I’m pleased to do it again for the next three years,” he said of his win for another term on the board.
Bowdoinham is in very good shape financially, he said, so now it’s a matter of keeping an even keel.
He said William Post, the town manager since July 2011, “is right on top of it,” which makes the job of selectmen much easier.
Tourtelotte added that he hopes Lewis will run in the next election, “because I think he will make a very good selectman,” and said, “Hopefully we can get him involved in the town. I think he could be a really big asset.”
No one ran for the open three-year seat on the School Administrative District 75 school board, but Julie Booty won the seat as a write-in.
dmoore@timesrecord.com
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