Waldoboro Selectman Rebecca Maxwell said she plans to continue attending meetings of the board, after she steps down later this month.
Maxwell was born in Waldoboro 72 years ago, graduated from the A.D. Gray High School in 1958, and has spent the last nine years on the Board of Selectmen. Before serving on the board, she spent 17 years in the Town Office as Waldoboro Town Clerk.
“I had just gotten through working with Dr. Richard Waterman,” she said in a June 1 interview. Prior to that she worked at the Locker Plant near the current location of the Miller Elementary School. She said people were unhappy with the town clerk and kept asking her to run. At the end of almost 18 years as clerk, Maxwell took a few years off to take care of personal matters, returning to municipal service as a selectman in 2003.
“I always said that every citizen in every town should have a turn as selectman,” she said. Maxwell said that was the only way for people to truly understand what the job entailed.
At the time she began public service, the position of town clerk was elected in Waldoboro. Toward the end of her tenure as clerk, the position became an appointed one. Maxwell said the only part of the job she found hard was elections.
“You’d come in at 3 a.m. and work until 3 or 4 o’clock the following morning,” she said. “God bless Eileen [Dondlinger]. She stayed right with me. She’s like an adopted daughter. She’s a sweetheart and I became an adopted grandmother to her kids.” Maxwell said she and the Waldoboro Finance Director remain close friends.
She said one of the most interesting and important things she did as town clerk was to have the record books refurbished.
After 17 years as town clerk, Maxwell resigned for health reasons. Not one to leave public service behind, she ran for selectman because she wanted to know “what it’s like on the other side of the table.”
“If you don’t get involved, you don’t understand all the rules,” she said. “Ninety-nine percent of the people in Waldoboro are the best people. They’re courteous, polite and just downright nice.” She said those who blocked passage of the budget last year did not understand the repercussions of their actions.
“You can’t vote down the most important parts of the budget,” Maxwell said. She said the fire and police departments are needed to ensure the safety of all citizens, including school children.
“I don’t want to have to wait for the Lincoln County Sheriff’s office if I need a police officer,” she said. “They could be busy or elsewhere. We need our police and fire departments.” She said a rapid response is necessary when homes are broken into or other crimes occur, and that she has always been an advocate for the fire department.
“Those guys go into burning buildings. Their lives are at stake all the time.” Maxwell said the town’s emergency medical staff are wonderful people as well.
While she supports the Waldoboro Public Library, she said the town pays more than its share for its services.
“Even though I’ve been vocal about it, we’re all good friends,” she said. “I’ve made a lot of good friends since I’ve been in town government.”
Maxwell described the Waldoboro of earlier years as a town with a vital village center that included a cobbler shop, two downtown banks, several restaurants and four grocery stores. She said she looked forward to the opening of a satellite center of the Central Lincoln County YMCA at the A.D. Gray building, a proposal now under discussion.
“I’m hoping that will bring some business,” she said. She said the YMCA would find the building to be a valuable asset.
Maxwell said there were good reasons for holding open public town meetings.
“There are so many articles to vote on,” she said. “If you don’t discuss them, people can vote on business they don’t understand. Once you’re behind the curtain, you can’t ask questions.” She said many voters have an agenda to simply vote against things. “They’re against plowing our roads. They don’t think anybody else knows what they’re talking about.”
She had high praise for former Town Manager Lee Smith and for the man who replaced him.
“John Spear is the nicest man,” Maxwell said. “He’s a good man and a fair man.”
Returning to her consideration of changes that have come in her lifetime, she said people used to be more welcoming.
“When somebody new would move into the neighbor hood, my grandmother would make a cake,” she said. “We’d go and welcome them. People don’t do that anymore.”
She said she hoped all members of the new Board of Selectmen that will be sworn in after the June 12 election will work for the good of the people and the town. Three of the five seats on the board will be filled by voters June 12. Only one incumbent, Theodore Wooster, is among the nine candidates vying for those seats.
“You have to listen to everybody,” Maxwell said. “What gets me is they think they can come in here, sit down, and everything will change. It’s the same in national politics. Listen to the promises they make.”
Maxwell said it was important to take care of people in need.
“There are people on welfare that don’t need it,” she said, adding she is involved with two private organizations that provide financial support to the needy. She said creation of housing at the Sproul Block was a way the town helped itself by helping others and said many Waldoboro citizens need help at one time or another.
“A lot of people don’t want to give any of their money or their time to help someone in need,” Maxwell said. “I can’t believe people, in this day and age, should have to go without food.”
She said the best part of her service to Waldoboro has been the friendships she has made and the support she has been given by others.
“I’m going to continue coming to selectmen’s meetings because I want to see exactly how they’re going to change everything,” Maxwell said. She said she thinks Waldoboro is in a good position and has good people working for the town.
She also plans to remain involved with the clubs and service organizations she participates in.
“I’m 72,” she said. “I never thought I’d be this age.”
Maxwell is active as president of the auxiliary of the German Lutheran Protestant Society. She is a fifth-generation descendant of Conrad Heyer, the first Caucasian child born of the German immigrants who settled in Waldoboro. She is past president of the Waldoboro Women’s Club and current secretary of the VFW auxiliary.
