CUMBERLAND — Voters in Cumberland and North Yarmouth on Tuesday approved a $40.25 million School Administrative District 51 budget for next year, 2,628 to 1,865.

The spending plan passed 1,737 to 1,312 in Cumberland, and 891-553 in North Yarmouth. A second SAD 51-related question, whether to transfer $375,000 from unallocated balances to SAD 51’s capital reserve fund to pay for renovations and minor capital costs, passed 3,259 to 1,389 between the two towns.

Meanwhile, Allison Foster secured 1,416 votes to win a Cumberland Center seat on the Town Council, defeating Jason Record, who garnered 842 votes, and incumbent Bill Stiles with 751.

Stiles, a councilor for most of the past 23 years, said he wished Foster the best. “I would love to have served another three, but obviously the public didn’t see it that way, so that’s the way the cards fall,” he said.

Foster is assistant vice president of State Management at The Hanover Insurance Group, and has served two years as co-treasurer of the Greely Parent-Teachers Organization.

Tom Gruber received 1,729 votes to retain his at-large seat on the Town Council, defeating Carlton “Will” Albright, who had 1,214 votes. This election marked the first time since Gruber’s election to the panel in 2011 that he faced a challenger, having been uncontested in 2014 and 2017.

Gruber, a member of the Town Council’s Finance Committee, is a consultant in supply chain management for health organizations, former vice president of operations at Mercy Hospital, senior vice president at Catholic Health East, and a retired Army officer. His political and civic experience includes being president of both the Cumberland Food Pantry and Preble Street board, treasurer of Southern Maine Agency on Aging, vice president of the Vet2Vet Board, and chairman of the Municipal Oversight Committee of the Community Block Committee for Cumberland County.

In North Yarmouth, Brian Sites received 871 votes, and Austin Harrell 698, to secure two open three-year seats on the Select Board; Al Ahlers finished third with 478 votes. Steve Morrison, the board’s vice chairman, and fellow board member Jennifer Speirs did not seek re-election to those seats.

Steve Berry defeated Paul Hodgetts, 756-568, for a one-year Select Board seat vacated by Bill Whitten, a board chairman who resigned March 30.

North Yarmouth voters approved a $3.39 million budget for next year. The budget reflects a 6.19% increase over current spending, although taxes on a $300,000 home in town could rise just $36.

Question No. 1, which asked for $3 million to be approved for departmental expenditures, won by a vote of 1,157-344.

Sites is vice president of Business Development and Implementation with Volunteers of America Northern New England. He has served on North Yarmouth’s Wescustogo Building and Design Committee, Town Branding Workgroup, Parks and Recreation Committee, Safe Bikes and Walkways Committee, and Budget Committee, Cumberland Woodbank, Yarmouth Chamber of Commerce, and also as communications committee for the SAD 51 board. Sites was named the town’s Distinguished Citizen in 2016.

Harrell, a civil engineer with Realtime Utility Engineers, ran for the Select Board in March and served on the Vienna Planning Board.

Berry is a special education teacher at the Mabel I. Wilson School in Cumberland. He was former secretary and chairman of North Yarmouth Comprehensive Plan Committee, and now serves on SAD 51’s School Building Committee work group.

“I’m really excited that so many people in the town are behind me, and I’m looking forward to getting to work,” Berry said.

Among uncontested elections in Cumberland, Tyler McGinley received 2,099 votes to continue on the SAD 51 Board of Directors, of which she is chairwoman, and Michael Williams secured 1,894 votes. The town had a 46.5% voter turnout.

Mike Simmons received 1,204 votes for his uncontested bid to continue as a North Yarmouth representative on the SAD 51 board.

The town had 44% voter turnout.

 

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