DIXFIELD – Voters will choose from four candidates for two selectmen’s seats in town elections Tuesday, June 10. Polls will be open from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. at the fire station.

Candidates are incumbent Eugene Skibitsky, Norman Mitchell, Stephen Donahue and Pamela Pace.

Skibitsky, 48, a New York native with a wife and four children, has lived in Dixfield since 1978. He works as the general manager for Western Maine Transportation, a job he’s held for 25 years.

Mitchell, who grew up in Turner and has resided on Route 17 in East Dixfield since 1986, is a descendant of Ebenezer Holman, one of the Dixfield’s early settlers.

“He was my great-grandfather’s great-grandfather,” said Mitchell. His wife, the former Terri Coolidge, has a lineage in East Dixfield that goes back seven generations. They have five children.

Mitchell works in Wilton as the associate licensing coordinator for the ICT Group, a worldwide customer service provider based in Pennsylvania.

Donahue, 49, a Dixfield native with a wife and two children, graduated from Dirigo High School in 1972. For the past 13 years he has worked in the mechanical maintenance machine shop at MeadWestvaco in Rumford.

Pace, 49, is a Rumford native with a husband and six children. The homemaker, who worked as a school teacher for 12 years, returned from Lawrence, Mass., where she lived for 25 years, to Rumford in 1991 and to Dixfield in January.

All cited giving back to the community as their primary motivation for seeking election.

“I enjoy working with the people to try and make Dixfield the best place in Maine to live and to work,” Skibitsky said.

Mitchell expressed concerns for everything from the Police Department issue to taxes and the town’s water system. Dixfield’s tax rate in 2001 was $20.75 per thousand dollars of assessed valuation. It is now $23.50.

Selectmen in March cut the town’s full-time police force from four people to three, stirring up a powder keg that threatens to explode at town meeting, Saturday, June 7.

“Taxes are outrageous and the selectmen have gone against the police department, which only represents seven percent of the town’s budget. It’s a vital agency. A better solution if the town needs more money, is to revalue the town, since that hasn’t been done since 1991.

“We need to bring the money up to the inflation rate instead of raising the mill rate. Doing away with a police officer didn’t save us money or why did they want to raise taxes?” Mitchell asked.

Donahue echoed Mitchell on taxes.

“I’d like to see fiscal responsibility, taxes and mill rates kept under control,” he said. “I’d also like to contribute something to my old hometown.”

Pace said she wanted to make a difference.

“I’ve always known Dixfield to be a friendly community,” she said. “But since I’ve been back, there are a lot of people upset with taxes and what’s been going on with the police force. You can’t find too many places like Dixfield in the world, where people want to help people and the crime rate isn’t high. But it does need to be addressed before it gets out of hand.”

All but Skibitsky see the Police Department as one of the big issues coming up for Dixfield.

“The hot button issue right now is the Police Department, but it’s not a long-term issue. Just an emotional one at this point. Big issues in terms of town financial affairs are upgrading older pipes in the water department within the constrains of the budget we have to live with from the Public Utilities Commission,” Skibitsky said.

Other issues noted by Skibitsky are the need for continual upgrade of the water infrastructure, a townwide revaluation that includes commercial businesses like Irving Wood Products, and regionalization efforts.

Mitchell again cited the tax rate, police and the fire department in East Dixfield as big issues on the horizon. Dixfield town meeting voters must decide whether to join Wilton in raising $45,000 each to expand East Dixfield’s Fire Department.

“Due to the current financial situation in town, I don’t believe the article will pass, but it would be beneficial to our community. But the big issue here is the Police Department. If we’re so poor and can’t afford police coverage, how can we afford anything else?

“It boggles my mind to even think how they can do away with a police officer,” Mitchell said.

Donahue cited the potential school merger with Peru as the biggest issue and the affairs of the Water Department. Unlike Mitchell and Pace, though, Donahue believes there is a lack of accountability on the police issue.

Considering the budget we have for our Police Department, basically, I don’t think we’re getting our money’s worth,” he added.

As for municipal experience, Skibitsky served on the Planning Board in the early 1980s, put in 11 years on the SAD 21 board and has been a selectman for the past six years.

Mitchell was a former Planning Board member in the late 1990s and has been a public works employee for the towns of Chesterville, Livermore and Dixfield, holding a Class A license.

Other candidates running unopposed include: Incumbent Cynthia Gould, David W. Berry and Leslie Skibitsky for three SAD 21 board seats, each for three years.

karkos@sunjournal.com

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