PRESQUE ISLE, Maine — Three new city councilors elected in November officially took their positions during during the council’s first regular meeting of the new year on Jan. 2.
Doug Cyr, owner of Leisure Village retirement center; Jeffrey Willette, owner of Willette’s Auto Service; and Jacob Shaw took the oath of office. Cyr and Willette will each serve four-year terms on the council while Shaw will serve a one-year term.
Cyr and Willette each garnered 1,493 votes to win the four-year seats over the third candidate, Don Gardner, who received 1,275 votes in the November election. Shaw was the lone candidate running to fill the year left on the four-year term for councilor Natalee Graves, who left for work reasons in 2018. Councilors had appointed Cyr to fill that seat when she left until the election could be held. Former council chair Emily Smith and Leigh Smith did not run again.
On Jan. 2, councilors unanimously voted to appoint councilor and former deputy chair Mike Chasse, who was not present for Wednesday’s meeting, as the new council chairman. Councilors Kevin Freeman and Randy Smith nominated themselves for deputy chair but the councilors then unanimously decided to delay the vote for that position until Chasse is present for next month’s regular council meeting.
In other business, the councilors reappointed current code enforcement officer George Howe to that post as well as to the positions of building inspector, housing inspector, electrical inspector, local health officer and plumbing inspector. Vince Baldwin was named deputy code enforcement officer as well as building inspector alternate, electrical inspector alternate and plumbing inspector alternate. Councilors reappointed Brent York as the city attorney and Tom King as city clerk.
The council also announced that there are still two seats on the Presque Isle Planning Board available for interested residents. Candidates must go to City Hall to fill out the necessary paperwork and will be subject to an interview with the councilors before a final decision is made, said city manager Martin Puckett.
There also is a vacancy on the SAD 1 school board for District 13, which covers territory from Parsons Street to the edge of Main Street near the Aroostook Centre Mall. No candidate ran for that particular school board seat in November.
“There were write-in candidates that we can reach out to, but as this point we can’t say for sure whether those people are even interested in serving,” Puckett said. “State statute mandates that the council appoint any district representatives in this type of situation and that the representative needs to reside in the specific district.”
Councilors encouraged any residents of District 13 interested in serving on the school board to apply at City Hall. The council hopes to appoint residents to vacant board seats during their next regular meeting scheduled to start at 6 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 6.
