The Brewer Education Association will hold a “Meet the Candidates” forum at 7 tonight at the Brewer High School cafeteria.

Candidates for City Council, school committee and high school trustees are as follows:

Council

Michael Celli is seeking his second term on the Brewer City Council. He served as Brewer’s mayor for his first two years on the council and is deputy mayor this year.

From Texas, Celli, 48, has lived in Brewer for about 11 years. He is married and his two sons have attended Brewer schools.

A former teacher and sales professional, Celli received a college degree in education from the University of Texas.

When the family moved to Brewer, Celli said he first ran for City Council to help improve the its public image, among other reasons. Media reports used to place the council’s actions “in a very bad light. It was almost like a circus. Most people read the newspaper to see what funny things the city of Brewer did the day before,” Celli said. His goals were to build cohesiveness among council members and to help build coalitions and consensus within the council, he said.

Chelli said City Council meetings now conclude with handshakes, and Brewer is on a roll businesswise. The city’s “renaissance,” growth and transformation need to be closely tended, and continued resident involvement is the key, according to Celli.

Besides continued development, key issues in Brewer include the need to expand housing options and improve the city’s infrastructure, he said.

Larry Doughty is seeking his sixth term as a Brewer city councilor. A resident of Goupee Street, Doughty is steadfast in his belief that taxes must be reduced on a local and statewide level.

Doughty has served a total of five terms on the City Council and said he is “honored to have served the citizens of Brewer for 15 years.”

A graduate of Brewer High School, Doughty is married with a grown son and daughter. He has several grandchildren.

He is retired from working in state-run liquor stores in Bucksport and Brewer for 30 years.

Doughty, 64, is author of a charter amendment requiring Brewer’s city manager to be a resident of the city. The amendment will be on the ballot to be decided by voters Nov. 4.

Doughty said some of the more prominent events that have taken place in Brewer in the last few years include rapid development, from the construction of the Eastern Maine Healthcare-Cianbro project to the Wal-Mart Super Center on outer Wilson Street. Other developments include the recent opening of the Ruby Tuesday restaurant, the Muddy Rudder restaurant and the Downeast Toyota expansion.

Doughty said the acquisition of the Brewer Water District was a “major proposition” and that some “very serious operational issues” are “in the legal stages of being investigated.”

Ailine H. Simon is seeking a first term on the Brewer City Council. A graduate of Brewer High School, Simon, 74, returned to her home city 33 years ago.

Simon said she “would like the opportunity to bring new blood to the Brewer City Council” and pledged to work hard for the benefit of Brewer residents.

If elected, Simon said, she would represent an area of the city unhappy with the establishment of Pandora’s Boxxx, an adult video store on South Main Street. She considers the business a “blight” but said it is one of many issues to be concerned about. Escalating property taxes, extended public transportation, lack of affordable housing, traffic safety, handicapped access to City Hall and expanded recreational offerings are also on her list of concerns.

Simon has served on several local boards, including the BACTS Citizen Advisory committee, the Penobscot Bridge Committee, Brewer Senior Citizens, and the Brewer Cemetery Board.

She has worked for the U.S. Department of Labor, the First U.S. Naval District, the New Hampshire State Port Authority and a governor’s publishing company. Locally, she has worked in an assessor’s office, EMDC, printing, publishing, real estate, the construction industry and as a marketing representative.

School committee

Amanda Bost, 43, is running for a first term on the Brewer School Committee. Bost and her husband, City Manager Stephen Bost, have two children in Brewer schools and the candidate says she will use her “business experience, my leadership skills acquired from board service and from being a parent of two school-age children” to serve the community and the school committee.

A key goal, Bost said, is to “work to achieve a balance between affordable schools and high-quality schools.”

Brewer residents “need to know they are getting good mileage for their tax dollars,” regardless of the outcome of November’s school-funding ballot questions, according to Bost.

She praised Brewer’s teachers, administrators and school staff as “among the best in the area. We are fortunate to have such a rich resource.”

Other areas of interest include after-school programming for middle school and early-high school youth, improved communication between the schools and the city’s parks and recreation department, expanded opportunities for gifted and talented student and additional to offer alternative high school education.

Bost has a master’s degree in business administration from the University of Maine. She is an independent insurance and financial services professional.

B. Calvin Bubar III of Brewer is seeking his third term on the Brewer School Committee. Bubar is the midst of teacher contract negotiations and said it is important to have continuity in that group. He also sits on a visionary committee, sponsored by the high school trustees, that is considering the feasibility of Brewer considering building new schools.

Bubar also is a member of a regional committee dealing with issues of exceptional children.

He is married and has three grown children, all of whom attended Brewer schools before going on to college. All have degrees and received “excellent” educations in Brewer, Bubar said.

Bubar is a local landlord who rehabilitates buildings. An Army veteran, he served four years in the military before being honorably discharged in the early 1970s with the rank of sergeant.

Frank Rapp us running for a first term on the Brewer School Committee.

“I think the board is stagnant and needs new people in there,” Rapp said.

Rapp and his family moved to Brewer in 1998 and his son and daughter are both graduates of the Brewer school system, where they received adequate education, he said.

“There is potential to do more” in Brewer schools, Rapp said.

A New Jersey native, Rapp, 48, is a processing equipment mechanic for the U.S. Postal Service. He is a high school graduate.

Ruth-Marie Spellman is running for her ninth term on the Brewer School Committee. She has served on the board since 1977, working in subcommittees including negotiations, building and superintendent searches.

She is chairwoman of the board for the United Technologies Center in Bangor and has served on other committees for the school, including negotiations, budget, policy and director searches.

Spellman and her husband have three grown children, who all graduated from Brewer High School. The couple has four grandchildren.

Her children received “an excellent education from the Brewer School Department, and I would like to give back whatever I am able to do,” Spellman said.

Spellman listed continued support of the Alternative Choices for Teens program and putting continued pressure on the state to live up to its mandated level of funding as key issues. She supports the establishment of the curriculum coordinator and technology director positions two years ago and praised Brewer High School, which has one of the higher number of Advanced Placement courses in the area.

“I would put our college-bound kids against any other school as far as test scores,” Spellman said.

Spellman also has served on the Maine School Board Association from 1981 to 1989, serving as its vice president from 1987 to 1989.

A graduate of John Bapst High School, Spellman attended the University of Maine and is a licensed real estate broker.

Spellman served on the Brewer Music Association for more than 10 years, acting as its president for several years.

She is an active member of Beta Sigma Phi since 1966, receiving its “Sister of the Year 1987-1988” award. Until recently, she served on the board of Project Atrium, which runs two facilities for adolescents ages 14 to 18 needing structured, therapeutic home environments.

High school board of trustees

Jerry Goss is running for his first five-year term on the Brewer High School board of trustees. Goss was principal for 15 years at Brewer High School before retiring and still serves as a substitute teacher at the middle school about three days a week.

Goss, 56, said he has a “pretty good working knowledge” of the buildings and grounds of Brewer schools and what is needed for the future. Now that he’s retired and has more time, he wants to help get materials and funding for the school system’s building needs.

Goss said Brewer is the only school system in the region with no new buildings or new additions.

“When I was principal at the high school, I didn’t have the best building to house an education program, but I had the best staff. If I had to choose one or the other, I’d choose staff. Now that I’m retired, I’d like to look at the other,” Goss said.

Married with two grown sons, Goss is a Brewer native. His father also served on the trustee board.

Goss also taught in Old Town schools and was assistant principal at the Leonard Middle School for several years before moving back to Brewer.

Goss received a master’s degree in education and a certificate of advanced study in administration and curriculum supervision from the University of Maine.