First-time candidates win Orono Council seats

ORONO — Voters here elected two new members of the Town Council Tuesday, removing a two-term incumbent in a five-person race marked by resident concern of manpower at the Fire Department.

Mary “Terri” Hutchinson and Lawrence Pixley received the highest number of votes among the field of five. The turnout for the election was higher than in most, town officials said.

Pixley received 705 votes, Hutchinson 690, incumbent Phillip Mateja 207, Stephen Benjamin 175, and Anthony Worster 95. Suzanne Gordon, who ran unopposed for one open seat on the School Committee, was elected with 759 votes. Various other residents each received one write-in vote for all seats.

“I’m very pleased and very grateful to the people of Orono,” Hutchinson said Tuesday night after the results were announced. Hutchinson said that although the recent debate over manpower for the Fire Department — a campaign topic for all candidates — likely was a factor in the election, it was one of many the new council will have to face when it convenes.

“The important thing is that we work together to solve these issues,” she said.

Similar sentiments were echoed by Pixley, who said he was “anxious to get to work,” and that he hoped the other issues facing the town, rather than just the debate surrounding the Fire Department, also were factors in the election.

Mateja said he was relieved by the outcome, and that now he can “enjoy a normal life.

“I always felt a person who ran for town office must direct his efforts toward working for the entire town, not just group concerns,” Mateja said. “This election obviously demonstrated the opposite.”

Mateja also said, “I guess I’ve been disillusioned as people’s wallets must be full and taxes no object.”

Like others, Pixley expressed surprise and delight at the relatively heavy voter turnout. About 18 percent of the registered voters in the town participated in the municipal election, which usually draws a lower number of people to the polls. In Ward I, 12.42 percent of those eligible voted, and 27.64 percent voted in Ward II. Still, town officials cautioned that part of the eligible-voter figure was inflated with University of Maine students, who seldom participate in municipal elections.