Filing deadline near for city nominations Four positions to be filled at Brewer polls

BREWER – Residents considering a run for local elective office have until 4:30 p.m. Monday to file nominations for the four positions to be filled in the city’s annual elections, which will be conducted in conjunction with the statewide referendum election Nov. 6.

Up for grabs are two City Council positions, one seat on the school committee and one post with the high school district trustees. So far, it appears this year’s elections will involve no contests.

In council elections, voters will fill the expiring three-year posts of Manley DeBeck Jr. and Eddie Campbell. Campbell stepped down from the council and his mayor’s position in April, citing financial difficulties with the family construction company. The city’s remaining councilors opted not to immediately fill Campbell’s position, which expires in November.

Also on the ballot, voters will fill Mark Chambers’ expiring three-year school committee term as well as the five-year high school trusteeship now held by Alan Kochis.

As of late Thursday afternoon, only DeBeck and Chambers had returned their nomination petitions to the city clerk’s office, both seeking re-election to their current posts. Others who have taken out petitions are Kochis, for re-election to his five-year post, and Gail Kelly, who is interested in a council post.

Also on Nov. 6, residents will reconsider increasing the school trustees’ borrowing capacity from $2.5 million to $5 million and a city charter amendment that would give the City Council a means for removing members involved in specific types of misconduct.

In a particularly close referendum races last November, residents voted 2,396-2,376 against an increase in school borrowing capacity. The debt cap for the district, which is responsible for maintaining buildings and grounds at the city’s public schools, has not been increased since 1973. Since then, construction costs and building-repair costs have increased significantly.

Despite the rejection, the trustees went ahead with their planned library expansion at Brewer High School, though it pushed them uncomfortably close to their borrowing limit. The decision not to put off the project was based, in large part, on warnings that Brewer High School, unless it accomplished the aforementioned facilities improvements, was at risk of losing its accreditation from the New England Association of Schools and Colleges.

Given the referendum results, school officials last year speculated that some residents might have been under the erroneous impression that trustees planned to borrow – and spend – the full $2.5 million increase, which they said was not the case. During a school committee meeting earlier this month, school officials said they would work harder to educate voters this year.