WINDHAM – Three Windham residents – Peter Anania, Larry MacDonald and David Nadeau – have submitted applications for the open Windham Town Council position.

The council is attempting to fill a position left vacant following the resignation in late October of former council Chairman Bill Tracy. The appointed position expires next November, when Windham voters will decide who will complete the final year of Tracy’s term.

The three men answered a series of questions posed by the six current councilors. The application deadline was Wednesday, Dec. 15. In coming weeks, each candidate will be interviewed by the council, which will then vote on the candidates.

Two of the candidates who submitted applications have run for council before. Both MacDonald and Nadeau ran for at-large council seats in November’s election. MacDonald received 1,876 votes but lost his three-way race to Tom Gleason (2,120 votes) and former councilor Bob Muir (1,919 votes).

Nadeau, a longtime Planning Board member lost his bid for council to incumbent Scott Hayman, 3,680 votes to 2,445. Anania has never run for Windham political office.

Asked why he is seeking an appointment to the council, MacDonald, a semi-retired tour bus driver, said, “I got a lot of support during the election so I owe it to the people who voted for me in November to put my hat in the ring.”

Nadeau, who has had two unsuccessful bids for council and is chairman of the Planning Board, said he is “just trying to be helpful in moving Windham in a positive direction.”

Anania – who operates Anania & Associates Investment Co., an investment fund which owns seven businesses in Maine, several of which are located in Windham, including mWave Industries and Maine Cedar Log Homes – says, if appointed, he would only serve until the next election.

“I’m looking to come in and carry forward the items on the council agenda,” he said. “Sewer is the biggest. We need to get a sewer in North Windham. We need to get that done. But I’d only be there for 10 months.”

Tough questions

The council posed seven questions to candidates and limited responses to 125 words for each question. The three candidates for appointment each said they struggled with some of the questions posed by current councilors.

“Some were fine, some were hard to answer,” Anania said. “I assume they’ll ask for more information in the interviews that are to come.”

Nadeau felt similarly.

“I thought their questions, several of them couldn’t be answered. I thought they were leading questions,” Nadeau said.

The first question, which asked candidates why they would join a council that has seen turmoil in past months, perplexed MacDonald, who said most legislative bodies have difficulties.

“I’m not a micromanager, but I haven’t seen too much trouble, but I think I can be beneficial to this council, maybe bring back some respect,” MacDonald said.

He also noted that some of the questions required a degree of insider knowledge.

“My answers were very, very short, but some of the questions, you’d have to be on the board for a while to know how to answer,” MacDonald said.