Ward 5 begins at Park and Ash streets, continues south along Knox to Adams Avenue, follows Pleasant Street to Webster, Sabattus, Farwell and East Avenue, then comes back downtown along Pine, Bradley, Sabattus and Bartlett streets.

Candidate: Tina Bailey

Age: 43

Address: 108 Birch St.

Education: Associate degree, general studies, Central Maine Community College

Occupation: Outreach worker

Political experience: None

Community organizations: Lots to Gardens, City of Lewiston Housing Committee, Visible Community, Girl Scouts

Why are you seeking the seat?

Because I would like to be the voice of the residents who live in Ward 5. I will listen to them and speak on their behalf. Together, we can make positive changes in Lewiston.

How would you keep city spending from increasing?

You have to look at the overall budget and realize that you can’t always keep spending down. You are going to get increases. Fuel increases every year; as every renter or homeowner knows, that has to be made up somewhere. You’ve got to pay it. You don’t have a choice. We can’t go around saying to the schools or the city building, ‘Well, we’re sorry. But because of the cost of fuel this year, we’re going to have to close a couple of hours early.’ You can’t do that. You need to find a way to save money. Be prepared; plan ahead.

Do you favor consolidating services with Auburn?

Again, it comes back to the people. If it’s truly going to save the residents of both cities money, yes. I’m an advocate as long as it’s truly going to save the people of Lewiston and Auburn money. If it’s a real savings, all the way. But if it’s one of these things where we predict it’ll save money, it needs to be more than a prediction. We need to know it’s going to save you XYZ amounts of money.

In your mind, what is the biggest issue councilors/mayor/staffers have not talked about over the past two years?

Because of the way Ward 5 is set up, it’s different. A lot of it is downtown. And then you have the outside of downtown. And a lot of times, there is great development going on, the voices of the neighborhood are not heard. For whatever reason, some people just feel their voices don’t matter. But I think you need to hear them, regardless if they are voters or not. They live here, and they know what this neighborhood is about. So that’s the piece, when the city goes forward with all of their wonderful developments, we need to make sure they are having meetings with those residents.