The Windham Town Council should be commended for taking a hard-nosed approach to municipal spending.

Since the installation in June of three new councilors – Kaile Warren, Donna Chapman and Wayne Davis – the council has been a dynamo in routing out wasteful spending and turning up the heat on local officials in charge of purchasing. These councilors’ conservative approach to spending has turned Windham government upside-down, much to delight of many townspeople. There is no singing in the streets, but people have noticed what’s happening, and are happy to hear there are council members trying to save Joe Windham Taxpayer a couple bucks.

Three separate examples come to mind regarding this newfound attitude toward spending in Windham.

First was the case of the $5,000 school bus door openers, which the town hastily purchased last winter from Portland North Truck Center. Councilor Warren made a couple quick calls and found the town could have purchased the parts for a fraction of the price if someone had done some comparison shopping. While his efforts didn’t save any money, the investigation served as a reminder to officials that someone was watching.

The second involved paying for a facilitator for the PRIORITY Task Force, a committee that was ineffective and unable to reach consensus, even after almost two years of meetings, on items relating to town planning and zoning. Spurred on by these new members, the council overwhelmingly agreed to nix the wasteful spending of the task force, which had run a bill upwards of $45,000.

The latest cost-saving measure undertaken by the new councilors concerns catch basin cleaning. It seems the town had been paying a cleaning company to check all the roadside catch basins. The company was charging about $30 each, whether the basins needed cleaning or not. Now that the councilors have shed light on this wasteful practice, public works employees will check to see which catch basins need cleaning and tell the cleaning company to only clean those, saving thousands of dollars in the process.

These are three items in about two months that have changed Windham for the better. Not too shabby for the new councilors’ first 100 days or so. As these new councilors get more embedded in the inner workings of local government, undoubtedly there will be more waste exposed.

In this era where people believe government officials bend to the wills of special interests or bureaucracy, this threesome of council rookies is a breath of fiscally responsible fresh air for Windham. They have taxpayers first in their minds. And that’s good, because Mainers are exasperated with state and local leaders who go into office with big promises but seem to forget them as soon as they gain power.

The new councilors have set a tone for Windham that puts the little guy first. Here’s hoping they ignite a trend all around Maine and bring back the sense of pride Mainers once had in their government leaders.

-John Balentine, editor