Mary Trescot (D-Damariscotta) will challenge incumbent Lincoln County Commissioner Sheridan Bond (R-Jefferson) in November.
Trescot is the executive director of Youth Promise, a non-profit organization.
Trescot is a native of Damariscotta. Her father, Louis French, was an electrician and plumber, the owner of L.R. French Inc. Her mother, Amelia, helped her father run the business.
As a young mother of two daughters, Trescot applied for and became an officer with the Damariscotta Police Dept.
She became “one of the first 10 women in the state to be trained as a police officer,” she said.
Trescot eventually moved to the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office, where she stayed for 22 years.
At LCSO, Trescot administered the D.A.R.E. program and the Youth Aid Bureau and specialized in community policing, grant writing and the investigation of crimes against children.
Her experience at LCSO lends her unique insight into one of the county’s biggest operations.
Trescot hopes, if elected, to institute mandatory quarterly counseling sessions for detectives who investigate crimes against children.
“It’s really tough when you see babies with cigarette burns or babies with broken arms or bruises,” Trescot said. “It affects the way you think.”
Trescot later helped organize Youth Promise, formerly known as the Lincoln County Juvenile Task Force, and 10 years ago, she became its executive director.
The late Lincoln County Sheriff William Carter, Trescot’s boss throughout her time with the county, used to remark that Trescot only moved her desk down the road, she said, as she continues to do much of the same work she did at the sheriff’s office.
Away from work, Trescot remains deeply involved in public service. A former Damariscotta selectman, she currently serves as the chairwoman of the Central Lincoln County Ambulance Service and as a member of the Damariscotta Budget Committee and the Damariscotta Cemetery Committee.
Trescot said she’s running because she wants Lincoln County residents to “view county government as an asset and not just a tax bill.”
She wants to use simple marketing and public relations techniques to improve residents’ understanding of what the county provides. “We can project a more positive image to the towns,” she said.
For example, most people probably don’t know how a probate court functions or why it’s necessary, Trescot said, yet the cost for every municipality to have its own would be prohibitive.
Trescot said she would meet with the heads of all the county departments in the coming weeks and months. She’s toying with the idea of writing a series of columns about county departments.
Trescot said she wants to increase county-municipal collaboration and research ways to increase recycling countywide.
Trescot didn’t discuss her opponent, but said she would bring “fresh eyes,” “new thoughts” and a focus on constant improvement to the commissioners. It’s easy, she said, for government officials to grow comfortable with the status quo.
Incumbent Bond and Trescot are running for the District Three seat. District Three encompasses Alna, Damariscotta, Dresden, Hibberts Gore, Jefferson, Newcastle, Somerville and Whitefield.
