(Editor’s note: The following is the first of a two-part interview with newly elected Windham Town Councilor Peter Busque.)

Seated at a busy work table in the office of Busque Construction Co. on Route 115 in North Windham, Peter Busque is coming off a dominant win on Election Day.

Election Day went well for Busque. He beat incumbent Councilor Elizabeth Wisecup by a two-to-one margin, as well as newcomer David Lydon. The Clark Farm proposal, an issue he opposed and paid for advertising to defeat, was also shot down by voters. And his political alliance of Bill Tracy, Matthew Noel and Scott Hayman – men who share Busque’s pro-business goals – all gained seats on the council.

In the first part of the interview, printed below, Busque reveals his plan for a celebration party in January at his recently approved Nash Road quarry (with possibly the first “small” test blast), and talks about the dramatic election victory and his plans for bringing a sewer system ¬- and more business – to Windham.

Next week, the interview continues, with Busque discussing how he got through the long battle to approve his quarry, his feelings about former council members who opposed his plan, and recent accusations by quarry opponent Margaret Pinchbeck.

Q: What’s this about a celebration party on Jan. 9?

A: What I’m going to do is have a party at my quarry. It’s going to be called the “Winds of Change, A Community Becomes One, Block Party.”

Q: What’s the point of the party?

A: It’s to raise money for Project Graduation, all the sports teams, as well as the music department, pretty much every function at the school.

Q: What’s on tap?

A: We’ll have an auction, put on by Keenan Auction. We’re going to have all the local businesses donate to sponsor the party. We’re going to have a huge climbing wall, bouncy toys for kids, a trailer filled with arcade games, two big tents, a huge bonfire about 50 feet wide and 20 feet high, and three bands. I’m trying to get Motor Booty Affair, a country band and then a kid from Windham High School who has a rock band.

We’ll have a grill there. I’m going to try to get local restaurants to come down with their food. No alcohol or drugs. Parking will be there for 250 cars plus we’ll shuttle them in. It’s Saturday, Jan. 9 from 12-8 p.m. I think it’s going to be a good time.

And hopefully we’ll have a small test blast, the first blast, way up on top of the hill. And we’ll elect a little kid to do it. We won’t make it a big one, just a little one.

And I’m doing it to bring the whole community together, after we’ve been divided over the last four or five years, to show them, yes, Windham has changed.

Q: How has Windham changed?

A: Not yet; it’s going to change. With this sewer stuff, that will open up all sorts of stuff. Hotels, Olive Gardens. We can have whatever. It’ll make all the lot sizes smaller. Like at Hannaford, their septic system is huge. If there was a sewer system, you could rip that out, fill it back in and build something. It’ll open up a lot of land for development and reduce the property tax rate.

Q: How many election signs did you have? Were you going for a record?

A: I don’t know, 30 of those 2-by-8-foot ones, eight of those (Department of Transportation) light-up signs. Those were donated by the way. Everybody thinks I paid for them. I didn’t pay a dime.

Q: Who donated them?

A: A friend of mine. Two friends of mine, actually.

Q: How many of those small signs?

A: About 150 of those little ones. But I only picked up about 70 of them. I don’t know where they all went. I have no clue.

Q: Are you going to save them?

A: Oh yeah, I’ve got to run again next year. I think I’m going to like it.

Q: Did you expect to win so handily on Election Day?

A: I was expecting to win. People wanted a change.

Q: Why do people want a change?

A: They’re tired of it. Nothing happened before. What did they accomplish in the last 10 years? Nothing. It all has to do with who you’ve got in there. Not the council, but who you appoint to run the other stuff, like the zoning board, the planning board, the ordinance update committee, the sewer committee. So if you get the right people in to make the changes necessary, this town will rock.

Q: Why is the sewer such a big deal?

A: Because that’s really going to spur economic development. If you get the sewer up here, you can really start building commercial stuff, rather than all residential stuff, to help with the tax rate.

Q: Do you think property taxes are too high?

A: Not really. They’re never going to go down, they always go up. But, you have to bring more businesses to town so you can help that.

Q: But it’s also for jobs, right?

A: Right, more than just a minimum-wage job, it’d be good to get some real business in here.

Q: What kind of businesses are you looking for?

A: Geez, if you could get an insurance company or if we had a waste treatment plant, we’d have wicked good jobs.

Q: Where would that be located?

A: You’d need a pretty big piece of land, so Grondin owns about 900 acres where Lavallee Lumber is, Genest.

Q: Let’s shift gears. What did you come away with on Election Day with how Windham voted?

A: It felt good. My buddy Matt Noel called me and said “Hayman’s in.” I said, “Good!” Then, he said, “I’m in.” I said, “Good!” He said, “You’re in.” I said, “Good!” Then he said, “Tracy’s in.” And I said, “Wow.” It was cool.

Q: Why was it cool?

A: Because we’ve all got about the same mentality, bringing economic development to town, as well as environmental conservation. That’s why sewer will be good.

Q: To help the nitrates in North Windham wells?

A: It’s all good soil up here, but it’s getting overloaded. So we’re better off to do it now than later. It’s going to be a big cost to get the sewer in. I think you could do an impact fee for people who come to town. Take Hannaford for example. If they built a new store, their septic system would cost $200,000-$300,000 alone. Why wouldn’t they pay out $150,000 to hook up to a sewer? Plus, they’d have a smaller building envelope.

Q: How much is a sewer going to cost the taxpayer? Isn’t that the reason they haven’t done it?

A: We’re going to work on it, to see how it could be funded. But we’ve got the money guy. We’ve got the construction guys who know how to get it done. We’ve got the engineering departments. These are the guys who can get it done. These guys all live in Windham.

Newly elected Windham Town Councilor Peter Busque talks about getting down to the business of running the town in an interview with the Lakes Region Weekly. (Staff photo by John Balentine)