Compiled by Natalie Bazinet
Staff Writer
LIMESTONE — Two three-year seats on the five-person Limestone Board of Selectpeople will be filled after the election on Tuesday, June 14 from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. at the Municipal Building; the new selectpeople will be installed just in time for the Annual Town Meeting the following night, on Wednesday June 15 at 6 p.m.
Selectpeople Jimmy Pelletier, Fred Pelletier and Tom Devoe will continue their terms as selectpeople; Walter Elliott and Jim Leighton chose not to run for re-election after completing their three-year positions.
Five members of the community — Catherine C. Gahagan, Danny R. Gahagan, Gary L. O’Neal, James A. Pelkey Sr. and Jesse F. Philbrick — decided to run for the two seats on the board.
Each potential selectperson, along with two candidates for the Limestone Water and Sewer Board of Trustees, was given a list of candidate profile questions and the option of submitting a photo. Profiles of the candidates are listed at right, as submitted, in alphabetical order.
Catherine C. Gahagan
Age: I’ll never tell.
Political party: All.
Offices and positions held: I have held many positions. I began my financial career with the County Federal Credit Union starting off as a teller and working my way through many positions, finally arriving at the position of branch manager in Fort Fairfield. I have attended many consumer lending seminars and various supervisory training seminars. I started my new career in 2004 with DFAS in Limestone where I am currently employed. I was the president of finance and also religious ed director for the Saint Louis Catholic Church here in Limestone. I was on the Revolving Loan Committee for the Northern Maine Development Commission. I was also the president of the Fort Fairfield Rotary Club and was bestowed the honor of receiving the Paul Harris Fellowship Award.
What made me run: Limestone is my home; this is the town where I was raised and raised my family. It is easy to sit on the sidelines and criticize and I did not want to be one to criticize. I want to be able to add my experience in financing and compassion to make Limestone the place in which people want to live in and move to.
Primary goals: Keep spending under control. The federal government is cutting back. The state of Maine is cutting back. We the citizens of Limestone can not afford needless spending. It is not the town’s money; it is the taxpayer’s money and we need to protect it as best we can. I would like to see our community begin to flourish again and where our citizens can afford to live in peace here.
Danny R. Gahagan.
Age: 51.
Political party: All.
Offices and positions held: I served on the Limestone School Committee for two terms. I also served as the community D.A.R.E. officer.
My background: Actually, I started in Limestone in 1979 when I joined the Limestone Police Department as a reserve officer. I was hired to full-time status in 1980. I also was a very active member of the Limestone Fire Department. I worked for the town of Limestone until August of 1988 achieving the position of sergeant for the police department and also the position of captain for the fire department. In 1988 I moved from the police department to start my career with U.S. Customs. I have worked with U.S. Customs and Border Protection for the last 23 years. In 2005 I was on the second deployment Border Security Team to go to Iraq to work with and train the Iraq border officials.
Why run? I would not be in the position that I am in today if it was not for the town of Limestone hiring me as a police officer and sending me to the Criminal Justice Academy. Back then, Limestone was famous for hiring and then sending police officers to the Academy only to have the officers, once trained, go to work in another town. When I returned from the Academy I felt obligated to the town of Limestone for awarding me the opportunity to become a law enforcement officer. That is why I elected to stay for eight years. This is my chance to give back to the community that has given so much to me.
Primary goals: This is not 1963. Limestone will never return to its ‘great days.’ We need to move forward and capitalize on what we have. Our own citizens are our greatest assets; we need to go out and hear what their needs and wants are. No one is going to ride in on a white horse and help our community. We, the citizens of Limestone, need to help ourselves. We have an increasing number of retirees moving to Limestone, not to mention the vast majority of aging citizens that are already living here. We need to have support services for these people. I have a vast interest in what the Selectperson does for their community. I plan to retire here in Limestone and raise my grandchildren so everything we do is for their future. These are trying times and we need to do everything that we can do for the citizens of Limestone.
Gary L. O’Neal
Age: 63.
What other political offices have you held? Two terms on the Limestone School Committee, one term on the Limestone Board of Selectpeople, three terms as State Representative for District 148 (Limestone), Chairman of the Business and Economics Committee.
What is your career background? Citizen of the Year. Over thirty years of sales, seven years at DFAS, four years as the Town Manager of Limestone.
What do you see as your primary goal(s) if elected? We need to try to improve our community starting with the downtown, looking for new businesses, but remembering that we need to realize that our community has many senior citizens who live on fixed incomes. Our budgets should reflect the needs of all our citizens.
Our goals should be to work together, find citizens who want to rebuild our town and from that group, establish a base of new leaders who will help lead in this effort.
James A. Pelkey Sr.
Age: 60.
Political Party: Democrat.
What is your career background? Mostly law enforcement, Limestone Police Department and Aroostook County Sheriff’s Department as well as farm labor.
What made you decide to run for this office? I would like to see an improvement in Limestone, more businesses, and more social gatherings for the public to get out and socialize at different events.
What do you see as your primary goal if elected? I would like the people of Limestone to attend more meetings so that the board can get their views of what they would like, their input, so the selectpeople could get a general idea of how the people feel about different agendas.
Jesse F. Philbrick
Age: 56.
Political party: Independent.
What other political offices have you held? One term as selectperson from 1981-‘83, two consecutive terms as selectperson from 1996- 2002 and one term on the Limestone Water and Sewer Board of Trustees from 2008-10.
What is your career background? I started farming in 1973. I have grown potatoes for 28 years. I then got into trucking as an owner/operator. I have done business for 38 years on my own.
What made you decide to run for this office? The town of Limestone needs to take another direction. Instead of having fewer businesses in town, we need to promote thriving business opportunities offering jobs and products for Limestone citizens. We need sustainable growth in our community. I want to help make this a reality.
What do you see as your primary goal if elected? The town of Limestone was cleaning up old buildings two years ago. I would like to ignite the clean-up opportunities once again. I would like to stop wasteful spending and redirect funds saved to the infrastructures of our town.
Limestone Water and Sewer
Board of Trustees
There are two candidates running for one seat on the Limestone Water and Sewer Board of Trustees, Neil Leighton Jr. and Daniel F. Lalonde. A profile from candidate Lalonde was not returned at time of print.
Neal H. Leighton Jr.
Political party: I do not serve any political party only the residents of the town of Limestone.
Other political offices held: I served one term as a town selectman and then 26 years as Limestone Water & Sewer District trustee.
Career background: Farmer. Heavy equipment operator, such as power shovels, cranes, backhoes, bulldozers and front-end loaders, plumber, heating technician with a master’s license, boiler fireman, master heavy equipment mechanic, steam fitter, carpenter and electrician. Retired after 35 years with U. S. Air Force Civil engineering service because of base closing.
Career supervision jobs: Plumbing shop supervisor, heavy equipment shops supervisor, and liquid fuels shop supervisor, steam fitting shop supervisor, heat shop supervisor, and housing maintenance shop supervisor and the high-pressure steam plant and cogeneration superintendent.
Why did I decide to run for trustee? Many years ago a former District trustee Robert Wright asked me to run for the trustee position because of my knowledge of water plants, plumbing and water and sewer plant operations.
While serving as a Limestone Water-Sewer District trustee, we have been able to get federal and state grants that have enabled the Water District to drill new wells, build a new water plant that now provides pure clean drinking water to the town instead of using contaminated drinking water from brooks that caused muddy water at your faucets.
We have also been able to get many government grants to rebuild the sewer distribution system within the town of Limestone. Over 95 percent of all money spent on all the sewer district construction contracts came from state and federal government grants. With this money we have been able to replace over 99 percent of the old broken clay lines that caused major repair and operating costs.
The Loring Development Authority and their tenants are now Limestone sewer district customers.
During this time we also had to close our old sewer plant that had been dumping its treated wastewater into the Limestone Stream. The DEP said that the Limestone Stream water flow is too low to properly dilute the treated waste we had been putting into it.
By the end of 2011 all of Limestone and Loring’s treated wastewater will be going into the Aroostook River in Caribou instead of the Madawaska Stream.
The districts working relations with the DEP has been outstanding!
