Incumbent Gary Rairdon and newcomer Kristina Yurko, his challenger for the Ward 4 Westbrook City Council seat, say that housing and improving the council’s relationship with the School Committee will be among their priorities if they win at the polls Nov. 2.

Ward 4 is on the west side of the city, and includes the Community Center and Congin School. The ward is bordered by the city limits to the west, the Presumpscot River to the south, and Cumberland and Bridge streets to the east.

Gary Rairdon

Rairdon

Age: 57

Political party: Unenrolled

Residence: Webster Street

Family: Married with children

Education: Associate’s degree, Southern Maine Technical Vocational Institute

Occupation: Operations specialist, Hannaford

Political/civic experience: City Council since 2013, runs nonprofit Westbrook Strong 5K

Website/social media: Facebook Facebook.com/GaryRairdonWard4

Kristina Yurko

Yurko. Courtesy photo / Kristina Yurko

Age: 31

Political party: Democrat

Residence: Falmouth Street

Family: Single

Education: Bachelor’s degree in neuroscience and English, Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia 

Occupation: Political and nonprofit development work for past seven years; server, Slab Sicilian Street Food, Portland

Political/civic experience:  Volunteer, Greater Portland Animal Refuge League;  former member, Maine Women’s Lobby Board of Directors; former volunteer, Mainers United for Marriage campaign, 2012.

Website/social media: Facebook.com/yurkoforcouncil4 

Rairdon, the council president who has represented Ward 4 since 2013, is seeking reelection, he said, also to continue his work to promote small businesses in the city and stabilize the tax rates so there are only small increases for necessary expenditures.

Yurko, who hopes to use some of her previous campaign management experiences in the councilor role, wants the city to invest more in community amenities and education. A resident of Westbrook for the past five years, she will provide a fresh voice and her “perspective is not influenced by past relationships or conflicts,” she said.

The race comes at a time when Westbrook has “a lot of irons in the fire,” Rairdon said.

“I want to explore any type of programming we can do to help our small businesses out. We have some housing coming. We have the Westbrook Common that is on the books right now,” he said, and he wants “to help facilitate and give support” to those initiatives.

He’d like to start work on the annual municipal budget earlier in the year to better manage tax increases, which should never exceed 2-3% a year, he said. In addition, more budget time would allow for greater council collaboration with the School Committee, an issue that arose during budget talks last spring. 

Rairdon also wants the council to meet quarterly with the School Committee.

“It can’t just be on budget numbers and facts and figures,” he said. “It also needs to be, ‘What’s going on in your community, how can the city help?'” 

He cited the July fire at the high school as an example of the need for transparency. Residents had questions, he said, and the superintendent’s office was “afraid to leak out too much information.”

“I’ve always been transparent.  I think that the more people know, the less information is made up or isn’t true,” he said.

Rairdon also supports impact fees on development to offset property taxes and hopes to see more housing projects like Westbrook Housing’s newly proposed senior housing facility across from the high school.

Yurko supports incentives for developers of workforce housing.

“I’ve seen a lot of comments from folks who rent who can’t afford to live here anymore, who may have children in schools and are moving out,” she said. “I think workforce housing is an area we need to think creatively about, how to increase availability.”

She also said she would ensure that the city continues to invest in public spaces, “making sure that we are also creating spaces for the community to gather.”

“I think that having thriving welcoming clean community spaces like parks attract local business and makes Westbrook a better place to live, she said.

To improve communication with the School Committee and foster transparency,  Yurko said she would like to have meetings with individual committee members to get to know them and understand the budget from the inside out.

“I think that the voters elect our School Committee, so listening to them, their recommendations for what a school budget should look like is important,” she said. “Asking questions to really understand it, but ultimately trusting that they are making the best decisions that they see fit.”

All residents will vote at the Community Center gym at 426 Bridge St.