BATH — Bath residents elected political newcomer Elizabeth Dingley to the 3-year at-large position on the Bath City Council Tuesday.
Dingley earned 1,223 votes, according results from Darci Wheeler, Bath city clerk. Dingley’s closest opponent, Robert Savary, won 1,094, Brandon Sewall earned 968, Jamison “Jamie” Pacheco received 891 and Jason Homan received 333 votes.
Dingley said she is “thankful for all the people who believed in me” and she feels “excited and so eager to roll up my sleeves and get to work.”
Dingley said she plans to prioritize finding a solution to the spike in rabies cases Bath saw last year and earlier this year that led to 18 people, children and pets being attacked by rabid animals. Dingley said she was attacked by a rabid fox in her year last August or September, but she wasn’t bitten.
“I’ve been doing a lot of research on oral vaccinations for rabies and I want to start a citizen-led initiative to go forward with that,” said Dingley. “I don’t want our wildlife in Bath to die from a disease as awful as rabies.”
In February, the Bath city council decided to partner with the U.S. Department of Agriculture to trap species known to carry rabies, such as gray and red foxes, skunks and raccoons. Trapping program cost $26,611 and caught 24 raccoons and four skunks, none of which were carrying rabies.
Dingley said that decision upset her and inspired her to run for the city council.
“The city council went over our heads to waste our money on something that was cruel and didn’t make any of us any safer.”
When considering how to mitigate the city’s rabies problem, the USDA warned oral rabies vaccine programs are an expensive, long-duration programs intended for areas of more than 25 miles. Bath is about 13-square-miles in size.
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