Two to Compete for Jefferson Select Board Seat

Two Jefferson residents are running for a three-year term on the Jefferson Board of Selectmen; a seat longtime Selectman Jim Hilton vacated when he moved out of town last summer.

Pam Grotton and Bob Pisco both hope to be elected to the select board at Jefferson’s annual town meeting Tuesday, March 31.

Only one other race is contested in Jefferson this year: see article this issue about candidates for two seats on the Jefferson School Committee.

Other candidates for office include Wayne Johnston, running for a one-year term as road commissioner; and incumbents Wayne Farrin, George Humphrey, Carol Kimball, and Bruce Sedgwick for four three-year terms on the budget committee.

No one took out papers for a single one-year term on the budget committee. The seat was left vacant after Scott Henry resigned from the committee last year, according to Town Clerk Lynne Barnikow.

Voters will decide the elections, a proposed $729,600 municipal budget (up $20,784 or 2.93 percent), and other items by referendum on Tuesday, March 31.

Polls will be open at the Jefferson Fire Station from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m.

With her oldest son headed to college and her twins headed to high school next year, Pam Grotton sees herself having more free time and wants to put it to use by serving the town.

One opportunity Grotton sees in Jefferson is to improve involvement of the townspeople, both in connection with the select board and in other ways.

Improving involvement will help increase the public’s understanding of what is going on in Jefferson and why certain decisions are being made, Grotton said.

Grotton pointed to how money is being spent in the town budget, concerns over road conditions and winter maintenance, and tax rates as common discussion topics around Jefferson that people could better understand by getting involved.

“I’m not going to say taxes are too high, I’m not going to say taxes are too low,” Grotton said, but she plans to ensure the town’s money is going to the right places.

A Jefferson native, Grotton lives with her husband, Jeff, and three boys. Grotton drives a school bus for special needs students and has worked as a bus driver for seven years.

Grotton has served on the town’s budget committee in the past and as a volunteer at Jefferson Village School.

Aside from wanting the opportunity to work alongside the town’s current selectmen, Bob Pisco has two main goals if elected: help address concerns over the baseball/soccer field at Jefferson Village School and preserve the quality of Damariscotta Lake.

Pisco has strong ties to baseball: he is entering his ninth season as the baseball coach for Great Salt Bay Community School, he has run baseball programs at the Central Lincoln County YMCA for the last 10 years, he ran clinics and coached high school ball in Massachusetts for years, was the Boston Globe’s 1979 Coach of the Year for Division III high school baseball, and coached the semipro Somerville (Mass.) Red Sox for a year.

Pisco said it is a “sin” that Jefferson children have not been able to use the new baseball field at Jefferson Village School due to its contamination issues, and he wants to support the school committee in its attempts to get the field ready for play.

Pisco recognizes the field is primarily in the school committee’s realm, but said the committee has been in close contact with the selectmen and he wants to do what he can to help.

“It’s all about the kids,” Pisco said. “You want to take care of the kids.”

In a similar vein, Pisco wants to support what he said is the great work of the Damariscotta Lake Watershed Association in protecting the lake.

Pisco pointed specifically to concerns about the invasive aquatic plant hydrilla and what he said is a lack of consideration by some people regarding the area in which they live.

Pisco called the view of Damariscotta Lake across from the Bunker Hill Baptist Church the “nicest spot in Maine” and wants to preserve it through preservation of the lake.

Pisco describes himself as having a lot of common sense and as somewhat of a conservative.

“Black is black, white is white, and there are very few gray areas, or should be,” he said.

Originally from Massachusetts, Pisco moved to Jefferson in 2004 and lives there with his wife, Ronnie. A licensed builder in Massachusetts, Pisco still does small jobs in the Jefferson area and has served as president for the Chimney Point Association, a homeowners association, for the last seven years.