Stetson expands Select Board to 5 members

STETSON – After a year of turmoil, residents elected a new batch of officials at the annual town meeting Saturday.

Four selectmen will join an incumbent on a new five-member Select Board for the town of approximately 1,000.

In addition, a new road commissioner was approved during Friday’s elections.

Eight residents vied for three three-year terms on the Select Board.

Gary Bellefleur Jr., Brenda Clark and Donald Carroll were the winners. Carroll garnered 137 votes, while Wayne Allard received 132 votes, said Selectman George Hockstadter. Allard has requested a recount that will take place at 6 p.m. May 29.

The winners will take office July 1.

Gerald Button defeated Martin Hipsky for the two-year term left vacant by former Head Selectman David Buchstaber. Button was sworn in Saturday morning, the date of Buchstaber’s official resignation, Hockstadter said.

After numerous elections throughout the year, Hockstadter is the only sitting selectman who will continue to serve.

In the final contested race, John Biggar defeated longtime road commissioner Charles Merrill for the one-year term. Incumbent Jody Lyford ran uncontested for the three-year SAD 64 director position.

Last June, 10 town employees and committee members resigned, many citing alleged disrespectful and accusatory comments made in a public hearing by Hockstadter and Buchstaber. Hipsky, who was a selectman at the time, was among the group that resigned. To fill his position, the town held a special election in September, which Carroll won as a write-in candidate.

In early 2007, both Carroll and Buchstaber wanted to resign, but for the town to conduct business two selectmen were needed in office. Carroll resigned, and Buchstaber announced he would leave the board after the May election.

In addition to multiple resignations, the town faced controversy about poor bookkeeping, which prompted the January firing of Town Clerk Corinne Babcock. Then in February, Babcock filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Bangor alleging that Hockstadter sexually harassed her in the office. The lawsuit is pending.

The municipal budget approved last week totals $557,130, excluding the $72,000 county tax and the education budget of $512,053. The tax rate had not been calculated as of Tuesday.

During town meeting, residents voted down an article to borrow $150,000 to build a sand and salt shed that residents had approved in the September 2006 election. Residents did vote to spend $120,000 from the town’s undesignated fund to repair sections of the Coboro, Mount Pleasant and Burleigh roads.