As basketball fans prepare for the renewal of the historic Celtics-Lakers rivalry, Dresden voters must decide the victor in a less hyped, but equally well-matched competition. On Tues., June 8, John Ottum and John Rzasa will vie for the position of First Selectman.
The men differ on how many times the situation has repeated itself. Ottum, the incumbent, said he’s won seven of nine races, while Rzasa said the total is more like five or six. Several of the outcomes, Rzasa said, have been determined “by one or two votes.”
Much of Dresden lies out of reach of Time Warner Cable or Fairpoint’s fiber optics network, Ottum said. Businesses must rely on inefficient dial-up connections. Students in grades 7-12 find their free laptops of limited use. Fortunately, Ottum and Dresden are working with ConnectME and Midcoast Internet Solutions to make high-speed, wireless access available throughout Dresden.
ConnectME and Midcoast will fund the project without any cost to Dresden taxpayers, Ottum said. “The first hook-up will happen within a year. Within a year, the whole system should be up and running,” Ottum said.
Residents will be able to choose to pay about $40 a month for a basic connection, or $50 for more robust service, a favorable comparison, Ottum said, with the $59 a month he pays Time Warner.
Not all residents will be able to choose the new service, as Fairpoint and Time Warner no-compete clauses for homes within 150 feet of their respective cable and fiber optics networks, but Ottum said the wireless network will “serve 200 homes without Internet.”
Helping businesses compete and students learn with this new service is just one in a long line of challenges met for Ottum. After his move to the town in 1981, Ottum joined the Dresden Historical Society.
“That teaches you a lot about a town,” Ottum said.
In 1987, Ottum served on the Facilities Study Committee, formed, he said, “to study how [Dresden] does business.” He won his first election for selectman the next year.
Twice in the last decade, in 2001 and again in 2005, Dresden voters have turned him out of office in favor of Rzasa. In 2001, Ottum said voters split with him over an update of the town’s comprehensive plan. In 2005, he said, the Fire Department didn’t think he was “a strong enough supporter” of the new Fire Station. Ottum defended his record in both cases, listing the comprehensive plan among his proudest accomplishments and insisting he wanted a new department as much as anybody – he just wanted to see it done right.
Ottum, who spent 30 years at BIW before his 2007 retirement, said Dresden faces “a lot more demands for services” in 2010.
“Our biggest problem right now is that the State of Maine is cutting our revenue for the schools,” Ottum said. Over the last three years, the state’s contribution shrank by half, from $120,000 to $60,000, he said. Meanwhile, Dresden’s contribution to RSU #2 rose by $34,000 this year.
Fortunately, Dresden continues to grow, and this hike in education spending, Ottum said, will be “offset by the number of new houses in town.” Otherwise, the town budget should be similar to last year’s, Ottum said. Cuts of “$3-$4000” in the roads budget and the legal account and $2500 from the donation account, which provides funds to non-profit organizations, will offset increases in snow plowing and debt expenditures.
“There are a lot of factors that govern what happens with your taxes,” Ottum said.
With two decades of service behind him, Ottum has overseen substantial progress in Dresden. When he recalls the town’s – and his – achievements in that span, they aren’t of the small, incremental variety. “Getting the Town Office up and running, getting the Administrative Assistant position up and running,” he said. The town renovated a 19th Century one-room schoolhouse for use as the office. Ill equipped in the beginning, now the office is “fully computerized,” Ottum said.
Although seeking reelection, Ottum said, has become “almost habitual,” Dresden residents may want to take advantage of his experience while they can. “I’m getting up there where I might call it quits in a couple years,” he said.
The most important issue in Dresden, he said, is “just like every other town. It’s got to be money.”
If he returns to office, Rzasa said he will re-enter negotiations to combine town services, like snow plowing and animal control, with neighboring Richmond.
Rzasa’s finest moment as a selectman came in his second term, he said. “I got the ball rolling for a new Fire Station. That pretty much took up my whole second term,” he said. The town built the station after Rzasa left, replacing the old building, which, according to Rzasa, was “in pretty sad shape.”
Despite the frustration of defeat, Rzasa said he wants to return because “I liked the job when I was there.” Even so, he needed convincing. “I had some folks in town come to me and ask me to run again,” he said.
Like Ottum, Rzasa termed their relationship “a friendly rivalry.”
“I like John,” Rzasa said. “He has his style of doing things and I have my style.”
Rzasa, a native of Massachusetts, served 20 years in the Navy in two 10-year stints. The first began in Nov. 1965 when, at the age of 17, he volunteered and served in Vietnam. After 10 years, Rzasa left, spending the next five years as a police officer, first in Maryland’s Montgomery County and later in Boothbay Harbor.
After 10 more years in the Navy, Rzasa retired, but not for long. Currently, Rzasa is the Security Site Manager at Maine Yankee.
Rzasa knows upsetting a long-term incumbent like Ottum is rarely easy. “A lot of folks, they become set in their ways,” he said. “They probably don’t change as easy as folks in the city.”
Of Dresden, Rzasa said, “It’s a nice area to live… You don’t have to contend with Route One traffic.”
First Selectman is the only contested race in Dresden this year. Elsewhere on the ballot, David Probert and Allan Moeller Jr. will run for second and third selectman, respectively. Moeller seeks his second term, while Probert, currently a member of the Conservation Committee, seeks his first.
Kim Rzasa will run for Treasurer, Town Clerk and Excise Tax Collector, and Daphne White will run for Property Tax Collector.
Probert, Dresden’s Recycling Coordinator for “the past 10 years,” recently retired from Bath Iron Works after 35 years. Now, he said, “I have time to help out the town and I think they could use my hand.”
Probert admitted that the Ottum-Rzasa showdown will be the marquee event. Noting the narrow margins of victory in past races, he said, “The people that say ‘my vote doesn’t count’ need to pay attention.”
