BUCKFIELD — What appeared to be a shoo-in election for Maida Demers-Dobson took a surprise turn when supporters of Board of Selectmen Chairman Martha Catevenis launched a write-in campaign for her.

Demers-Dobson, who is running for the three-year term in Tuesday’s election, retired a secondary special education coordinator with the Lewiston School District and served a full year on the Regional School Unit 10 Board of Directors ending last spring.

Catevenis runs her construction consulting company and decided not to run for selectman because she didn’t have time to launch a campaign. She said she would accept the position if she won as a write-in candidate.

One of the main reasons Demers-Dobson decided to run, she said, is she wants to improve citizenship in town, which includes fostering a positive environment at selectmen and other meetings.

“Really, one of the things we need is for people to feel comfortable at meetings and control those who don’t allow others to speak,” she said. There was a lot of distress at the selectmen meeting two weeks ago, she said.

Catevenis said the biggest issue facing the board is the rising tax rate, mostly coming from the RSU 10 assessment, which makes up 60 percent of the town’s annual budget. She said selectmen cannot solve this issue.

“That makes it very difficult for the selectmen to keep the rate down when the school can’t lower their requests, which in turn raises any reduction we might have squeaked out that year,” she said. “The people of RSU 10 need to go to the school board budget meetings and decide if the RSU request is warranted. If not, make recommendations on where they believe the cuts need to be made.”

Demers-Dobson was also concerned about the sudden decision to change the town meeting warrant articles from open-ended — allowing citizens to increase or decrease them — to close-ended, which means the monetary amount can only be decreased. She believes this move by two of the three selectmen should have been discussed with residents before a decision was made.

“Town government has gotten to a point where . . . two people can decide to step in and dump the work of the Budget Committee,” Demers-Dobson said. “It came up in an off-hand kind of thing and it was passed in a wink. The people who were punished are at the central offices.”

Both candidates were asked where and why would they put money in the budget, if they could.

Catevenis said it would be for roads.

“The town is on the road to recovery with a new crew . . . and new equipment,” she said. “Now, we need to start putting money in the good roads before they get worse,” she said. “The tackling (of) the next set of roads to keep them passable . . .  and decide if some need to be turned back to gravel because they are too far gone and will need to be added to the capital improvement plan for future repairs.”

Demers-Dobson said she would defer to the Budget Committee because its members are diverse, ranging from “the most socially generous to the most fiscally conservative.” She said the committee worked hard this year to put together a budget plan and should be allowed to weigh in on what additional money could be spent.

“Nobody likes paying their taxes. It’s not the best piece of mail you get, but it’s our obligation as citizens to pay that to make sure everybody has what they need,” Demers-Dobson said. “I think there’s a lot going on in Buckfield that’s positive but it’s sad that our town government is imploding.”

Polls will be open from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Tuesday, June 9, at the Municipal Building, 33 Turner St.

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