Wintle, Sherburne return to Dexter Town Council

By Mike Lange
Staff Writer

    DEXTER — Alan N. Wintle and Fred Sherburne prevailed in a six-way race for two seats on the Dexter Town Council last week. They also approved a moratorium on constructing “private transportation and distributing corridors” though the community and revisions to the town charter.

    The only incumbent councilor running for reelection, Michele “Missy” Stone, finished fourth in the race as 65 percent of Dexter’s 2,239 registered voters cast ballots on Election Day.
    Wintle, a corrections officer with the Piscataquis County Sheriff’s Department, was on the council for three years but lost his reelection bid in 2013. He won the most votes with 620.
    Sherburne, a dairy farmer, previously served on the council for 12 years and earned 614 votes.
    The other candidates and their vote totals were Deborah L. Fournier, 491; Stone, 436; Brian E. Sawtelle, 182; and Adam D. Briggs 180.
    The ban on the corridor construction was aimed at the proposed limited-access highway from Calais to Coburn Gore that could bisect communities in the Penquis Region.
    The town council previously passed a 180-day extension of a moratorium on the east-west highway earlier this fall and voted to send the issue directly to the voters.
    The final vote was 788-630 in favor of the ban.
    The charter revision drew fewer voters, but the 734-469 approval was decisive.
    Some of the provisions, which go into effect next year, specify that newly-elected or reelected town council members would begin their terms on Dec. 1 instead of Jan. 1 and department heads would serve indefinitely instead of being appointed every year.
    The charter also reaffirms the policy that “no person may serve as a member of the council when an immediate family member (spouse, parents, children, brothers and sisters) are employed by the town, unless said employee resigns that employment.”