The only contested race in the April 3 Durham municipal elections, for a position on the Board of Selectmen, pits an incumbent who is focused on the town’s new public works department against a challenger who says the town’s roads are a mess.

Joshua Libby is vying for a second-three year term on the board. Robert Whitmore seeks political office for the first time.

Elsewhere on the elections ballot, incumbent Candace deCsipkes is the only candidate for the Regional School Unit 5 Board of Directors.

Likewise, Christina Libby and Leigh Fisher are the only candidates for the Budget Committee, which has three vacancies. Vice Chairman Terry Kirk, Charles Pollock and Mark Conway all are stepping down. Town officials hope that a write-in candidate will agree to take the third open seat.

Libby and Whitmore answered questions regarding town issues for the Tri-Town Weekly.

Joshua Libby

Age: 37

Occupation: Information technology professional

Political experience: Three years, Durham Board of Selectmen

Q: What is your opinion on the article that would change the way the town votes on its municipal budget?

A: Each article would be listed in a referendum, like the school budget. They feel like they can’t make it to the town meeting on a Saturday morning. This will give some people more of an opportunity to have a say on the budget, but it would have to be handled very carefully. If a line got voted down in a referendum, what would that mean? It’s not a bad thing to get more people involved.

Q: The tax outlook in Durham appears tough. Are there alternatives?

A: If revenue sharing gets taken away, that’s even more taxes. We’ve got a pretty fiscally conservative Budget Committee, and we really don’t have anything to cut. And we also need to get some roads fixed.

Q: Why are you running for the Board of Selectmen, and what are your priorities?

A: My main goal currently is to see to the success of our new public works. We now have the mission of hiring a new road commissioner and have retained our agreement with Pownal in doing so. We need to get through a year and find out what’s working and what needs to be changed. I’d like to try and absorb a bond payment into our roads budget and see if we can get a reconstruct on at least one of our roads that have gone well past the shim and overlay phase. Runaround Pond is a good example, not to say it would be the first to be done. To get this done without touching the mil rate is a challenge I’m up for. Getting our budget passed would be an even more immediate goal. There is bound to be some debate on a few articles. I believe we can easily justify each line as it is presented.

Robert Whitmore

Age: 49

Occupation: Truck driver

Political experience: None

Q: What is your opinion on the article that would change the way the town votes on its municipal budget?

A: I think that would be a good idea. Let the townspeople have more say on what goes on in the community. Property taxes on my home have gone from $1,000 to $1,800 in two years, with no improvements. I can’t get any answers from anybody.

Q: The tax outlook in Durham appears tough. Are there alternatives?

A: The school tax is 71 percent of our taxes and there isn’t anything we can do about that. They’re going to tax people until they can’t afford their homes. What (Gov. Paul) LePage is trying to do with the income tax versus the property tax, I would be saving almost $6,000 a year. Reducing the income tax and raising the property tax would reduce the burden.

Q: Why are you running for the Board of Selectmen, and what are your priorities?

A: I want the town to be more transparent. The roads are falling apart and there never seems to be any money in the budget to fix the roads. I want to know where my money’s going. People want to know what’s going on. They’ve got some roads in this town where they might as well take the paving off, and make them dirt roads. They’d be a lot smoother.

Joshua LibbyRobert Whitmore

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