FREEPORT

Nomination papers will be available Monday for three town council positions and two Regional School Unit board positions.

Open council seats include the District 2 seat, held by Chairwoman Sarah Tracy; the District 3 seat, held by Peter Anzuini; and a councilor at large position, held by Bill Rixson.

Papers must be returned to the town office Sept. 13, said Town Clerk Christine Wolfe.

Beth Parker and Lindsay Sterling’s positions on the school board are also open for nomination.

Tracy, who has served one-and-a-half terms, said Thursday she will seek reelection, explaining she has projects she wants to see through and hopes to continue focusing on offering the best quality of life within the town’s means. The chairwoman said as other councilors are not seeking another term, she wants to maintain some stability and preserve the institutional knowledge on the council.

Anzuini said he will not seek re-election after serving a one-year term when he took over the term for a councilor who resigned early.

When he first decided to serve on the board, Anzuini said his primary motivation was to gain experience on the council, as it is easy for people to have opinions about what the council should do when they don’t have personal experience with the work.

Anzuini said he also went into the position with a certain naivete that public participation in town governance could be increased, and he cited a disconnect between the town council and the school board and their responsibilities to taxpayers and the Board of Education as a frustrating piece of working in town politics.

In the June school budget referendum, 12 percent of the town’s population voted in the election, Anzuini said. He added that 15 percent of Freeport and Pownal’s population and 8 percent of Durham’s population are over age 65 and living on a fixed income.

“When you have a school board that has increased taxes 39 percent in 8 years, guess who is taking it right out of their pockets,” he said.

He said his time on the council was extremely interesting, adding the council takes their work seriously, with a lot of debate, discussion and give and take.

“I take my hat off to the council,” he said.

Sterling, who was elected to the school board in 2014, said she will take out nomination papers to seek another term.

Messages left seeking comment from Parker and Rixson were not returned by press time.

jlaaka@timesrecord.com