Council vacancies draw a crowd

Town Clerk Laurie Nordfors on Monday released the names of those who had taken out nomination papers so far for elected town positions.

Incumbents Jim Hager, Paul Smith and Chairman Benjamin Hartwell are running for re-election on the Town Council, along with Dan Nichols, Rick Davis, Ingrid Semle, Tyler Gowen and Philip Gagnon.

Gagnon is a former councilor and board chairman. The three openings are all three-year terms.

Gagnon was the only one by Monday morning who had taken out papers for two, three-year terms on the School Committee. The incumbents are Vice Chairman Stewart McCallister, who has announced he will run, and Kyle Currier, who previously said she didn’t plan to seek re-election.

Robert Burns took out papers to fill a vacant position as a Portland Water District trustee.

Nomination papers are due in Nordfors’ office in the municipal center, 75 South St.,
by 1 p.m. Friday, Sept. 6. The municipal election is Nov. 5.

For more information, call Nordfors’ office at 222-1670.

U.S. taxpayer debt

The Bureau of the Fiscal Service reported on Aug. 1 that the U.S. public debt was $22,022,779,932,477.98.

Barney Odette of Mercier Landscaping on July 23 repairs the stonewall at the historic Gorham Academy Building on the University of Southern Maine campus. The academy, utilized in recent years by USM’s Art Department, opened in 1806 as a tuition school. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1973. Robert Lowell/American Journal