CORD-endorsed candidates win Writer, psychiatrist, former principal win seats on Ellsworth City Council

ELLSWORTH – A former principal at the city’s high school and the two other candidates endorsed by a citizens development group were elected easily Tuesday night to the three open seats on the City Council.

Leon Beal Jr., who retired as the Ellsworth High School principal in 2000, won the most votes with 1,186. Carrie Ciciotte, a free-lance writer and a former reporter at the Ellsworth American, was elected to the council with 858 votes. Barbara Reeve, a psychiatrist, was elected with 849 votes.

All three were endorsed by Citizens Organized for Responsible Development, a local group that opposed a proposal from Wal-Mart to build a 200,000-square-foot Supercenter on Route 3.

No representatives of the group were available for comment after the election results came in Tuesday night, but the outgoing message on CORD’s answering machine reminded callers about the election and described Beal, Ciciotte and Reeve as the candidates “best qualified to take a pro-planning position.”

The local planning board approved the Wal-Mart proposal, but the CORD group is circulating a petition to get enough signatures to enact a 180-day moratorium on large-scale development in the city. The group needs 1,178 signatures of the city’s 5,888 registered voters to have its moratorium proposal put out to referendum.

E. Ray Huntley, a banker and a former Ellsworth Appeals Board member, and fellow banker Anthony Barnes lost the election. Huntley received 689 votes and Barnes 653.

Barnes ran unsuccessfully for City Council during a special election last summer when Greg Lounder, another CORD-endorsed candidate, was elected to the seven-member board.