The only contested race for town office in Jefferson this year is for Road Commissioner.
Two-term incumbent Nathan Northrup is being challenged by Alan Johnston.
The vote for all town officers is from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Tues., March 30 at the Jefferson Fire Station on Waldoboro Road in Jefferson.
The 34-year-old was born in Jefferson, but grew up in Whitefield. He moved back with his wife, Kirsten Northrup about 12 years ago. He now lives on Goose Hill Road in Jefferson with his wife and two children.
Northup said he likes the position of Road Commissioner because it allows him to help the town stretch its tax dollars.
During his six years in office, he’s seen the price of road-building materials skyrocket. “I think I give the town the best bang for their buck,” Northrup said.
He’s particularly proud of several projects he’s undertaken. Northrup and his company, Nathan O. Northrup Forest Products and Earth Work, did a complete rebuild of North Mountain Road.
“It was one of the last roads to get attention, and if you see that road, it’s a testament to what my crew can do,” he said. “With my company, I’m a built-in highway department.”
All of his work is done in-house, which saves money and allows him to get crews to emergency sites quickly, he said.
This saved the town several thousand dollars when it rebuilt the Bosworth Bridge last summer. The estimate for materials alone on the project came in at nearly $47,000, Northrup said. The town only had $52,000 budgeted for the bridge.
“The selectmen asked me, ‘How are you going to do all the design and construction for only $5000?'” Northrup said. “I told them I wasn’t going to.”
Instead, Northrup got permission for his company to handle the project from start to finish, and he built the bridge, materials included, for less than $47,000.
He also helped secure more than $30,000 in Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) funds, equal to a large percentage of their budget for the year, for repairs following a rainstorm last summer.
“The work that we do, for the price that’s paid, speaks for itself,” Northrup said. “I’m always accessible. I make it a point to put my phone number in the Town Report, and I want people to call with questions and concerns.”
The 51-year-old has lived in Jefferson all his life and now lives on Valley Road in Jefferson with his wife, Becky Johnston. They have two children and a granddaughter turning three years old this month. Johnston has been a member of the Jefferson Fire Dept. for more than 30 years.
Johnston said he’s running again because with the economic downturn, he needs the work, and because a few people who are unsatisfied with the current Commissioner asked him to run.
“The economy is really the number one reason,” Johnston said. “I need the work, and I think people were satisfied with the job I did last time.”
He’s particularly proud of several projects he’s undertaken: Johnston and his company, A.J. Construction, did a complete rebuild of Egypt Road.
“It was the first job I ever had as Commissioner,” he said. “We completely rebuilt three miles of road for around $60,000.”
He started A.J. Construction when he was elected Road Commissioner, and through the position he was able to get the company off the ground, he said. After 10 years of growing the company, he had too much work to continue as Commissioner, so he decided to step down.
“I left on good terms,” he said. “A lot of people know me, and I have a good reputation.”
Johnston said he’s the one who asked Northrup, the current Road Commissioner, to run. He said they still have a good relationship even as opponents.
“I’m not going to say anything bad about him. Everybody does things their own way,” he said.
Johnston was also proud of his ability to work with other organizations when he was Road Commissioner. On one project, he worked with DEP and the Damariscotta Lake Watershed Association.
They rebuilt ditches, graded, built stone retention ponds and did other erosion control work on Punk Point Road.
His previous 10-year stint as Road Commissioner started when he defeated an incumbent who had been Commissioner for 30 years.
“That was when it was only a year term, so I had to run against him every year for four years,” Johnston said. “You can’t please everybody, but I think I left a majority of people happy last time.”
Johnston encourages everyone to get out and vote.
“If you want change, go vote,” he said.
