Baileyville councilors fill seat left vacant

BAILEYVILLE – The community has a new town councilor – at least for the next two months.

Owen Melville will replace John Morrison, who resigned at the end of the year because he was elected to the state House of Representative.

Melville, along with incumbents Charlie Towns and Milton Annis, will have to run in March if he wants to retain his seat on the Town Council. Candidates for the Town Council must file papers by Feb. 8 in order to be on the ballot.

At a meeting of the council Monday night, councilors selected Melville, manager of accounting at the Georgia-Pacific pulp and paper mill, over two other Baileyville residents, Stanley Jandreau and Byron Perry. Jandreau is a detective with the Maine State Police, and Perry works for Border Electric in Calais.

Jandreau has been involved with a committee that will establish guidelines for the town’s public-access cable television channel. Perry has spearheaded building of a new Little League field. Last year, Jandreau ran for a seat on the council but was defeated by incumbent Chairman Doug Jones by 33 votes.

Town Manager Jack Clukey said Melville has been host of his own show on the local Channel 8 cable access station. The show contains interviews with local people.

Jones said he voted for Melville because he has attended more council meetings than any of the other two candidates. “Mostly budget meetings … but he’s been interested,” he said.

Jones said the Baileyville man has been oriented toward his community and has served on the Labor Day Committee and Spednic Club. “He seems to be the most interested person,” Jones said.

The chairman said he never thought about putting Jandreau on the council because he was the next-highest vote getter in the last local election. “Nobody even mentioned it or thought about it,” Jones said.

Jones said if Melville had not applied, he would have voted for Perry because he also had attended a number of council meetings. “He’s attended a lot more meetings than Jandreau and showed a lot more interest,” he said.