Baston blasts as ‘despicable’ Alna’s write-ins for first selectman; town meeting practices social distancing

SUSAN JOHNS
Sat, 03/21/2020 - 4:30pm
Seats are spaced apart at Alna’s annual town meeting March 21 as a COVID-19 precaution. SUSAN JOHNS/Wiscasset Newspaper
Moderator Chris Cooper. At left, Town Clerk Liz Brown. They and others practiced social distancing of several feet from one another during town meeting. SUSAN JOHNS/Wiscasset Newspaper
Newly re-elected Alna road commissioner Jeff Verney stands by as a fire truck backs back into the fire station bay where the annual town meeting was held Saturday. SUSAN JOHNS/Wiscasset Newspaper
Grace Walker, 6, uses the hand sanitizer following town meeting. SUSAN JOHNS/Wiscasset Newspaper
Third Selectman Greg Shute smiles after one of moderator Chris Cooper’s comments. SUSAN JOHNS/Wiscasset Newspaper

    Alna residents who wrote in Leslie T. Fossel for first selectman Friday do not deserve to be called fellow citizens, Second Selectman Doug Baston told annual town meeting-goers Saturday afternoon.

    Incumbent First Selectman Melissa Spinney kept her seat, with 48 votes to the 28 write-ins for Fossel. All of Friday’s elections were uncontested on the printed ballot.

    At the start of the 11-minute town meeting, shortened due to the coronavirus, Baston said those who filled in Fossel’s name  “turned out in a secret campaign in an uncontested election in the middle of an epidemic, trusting that their friends and neighbors would stay home, and wrote in Leslie T. Fossel.

    “Every single one of them, Leslie T. Fossel. I find that despicable ... Melissa Spinney has done a wonderful job ... She’s devoted hundreds of hours, she started a food pantry, a community garden.” 

    Baston then stated it was “very clear who they are” who did the write-ins. He said “There was no purpose to this other than revenge” over past town politics he specified.

    Because how each voter votes in a secret ballot election is not public record, Wiscasset Newspaper is at this time unable to verify who wrote in Fossel’s name; the newspaper is not at this time reporting the prior political issue Baston’s statement connected to Friday’s write-ins for Fossel.

    Baston finished his statement. Several attendees applauded. And moderator Chris Cooper drew laughter in saying: “Extraordinary things, not what Baston says but that I even let him speak.”

    Fossel has not immediately returned messages seeking comment on the voting results.

    Thirty-two voters checked in Saturday, Deputy Town Clerk Linda Verney said. On a pair of motions from Carrie Kipfer, residents passed a one-vote, round of spending selectmen said was at last year’s levels and would be enough to keep the town running after March 31; and then a vote putting off the items selectmen said were new and could draw debate, including parking lots at Pinkham Pond and what share the town will pay toward maintaining and fixing the private Sand Building Road.

    The meeting for those has not been set. Cooper told attendees, that will be a much longer meeting of “the survivors among us.”

    Most Popular