MILLINOCKET – The affable man who leads the Town Council won re-election Tuesday by more than 300 votes over the next vote-getter in an election that drew 1,509 voters.

Chairman Wallace Paul received 1,083 votes, besting fellow winner and Councilor David Cyr, who had 715. With 650 and 342 votes, respectively, former incumbent Gail Fanjoy and challenger Kathy Gagnon failed in their bids for the two three-year seats, Town Manager Eugene Conlogue said.

With 641 votes, former incumbent Jim Mingo staved off a strong challenge from John Raymond, who had 591 votes, to capture former Chairman David Nelson’s seat and its remaining two-year term. Nelson left town for a job in Milwaukee early last summer.

Michael Jewers led Millinocket School Board candidates in capturing one of two open three-year seats. He had 747 votes. Shelley Farrington had 612 votes in securing her re-election bid, while Kevin Gregory and Michelle Park had 565 and 393 votes, respectively.

For Paul, the win was a pleasant reaffirmation.

“I feel honored, actually,” he said. “I had a feeling I was going to win, but I had no idea what the outcome was going to be. It wasn’t what I predicted. I am very pleased and honored that the voters would do that for me, and at that level.”

Paul said he hopes the new council would be unified in its approach to what he felt were the town’s two biggest issues – education and economic development.

“There needs to be a lot better conversation about it,” Paul said of economic development. “It has to stop being about who does it and more about doing what. For example, Gail [Fanjoy] mentioned during candidates night that one of the things we had to do was get cellular telephone towers in place to ensure connectivity. That’s a good idea.

“It doesn’t have to do with who gets the funding and who gets the job,” he continued. “We need to be talking about the list of things that makes our community more viable and more livable. Personally, I think there’s room for a lot of involvement by various people and various groups.”

The council meets at Town Hall in a special session at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 13, to organize itself.