Three candidates are competing for one seat on the Brewer City Council in the Nov. 7 election.
Donald Corey, Adam Eldridge, and Dani O’Halloran are running for the seat with a three-year term, which Councilor Joseph Ferris is currently serving. All of them are newcomers, though O’Halloran previously served as a school committee member for the Brewer School Department.
Residents can vote from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 7, at the Joseph L. Ferris Community Center, 318 Wilson St. in Brewer.
Candidates for the Brewer City Council, Brewer School Department school committee and district trustees will be on the ballot. Residents will also be asked to vote on Maine’s referendum questions.
Absentee ballots are available up until the third business day prior to the election, according to Brewer’s website. Voters can request absentee ballots online, download an application and mail it to the city clerk’s office, or pick one up at the office. Details are available on the city’s website.
Candidates listed below are in alphabetical order.
Donald Corey
Brewer native Donald Corey owns Annika Rod and Fly in Brewer, and he previously had a 38-year career as the information technology director at the Bangor Daily News. He serves on the Brewer Planning Board and his two daughters and two stepsons all went to Brewer schools.
Corey, 66, ran for a council seat last November and did not get elected, but is trying again.
If elected, Corey’s primary goal would be to strengthen communication between city officials and residents. Various city departments are doing good work, but it should be easier for residents to participate, he said. Corey suggested livestreaming more meetings, including boards beyond the city council.
Maintaining a tax rate that is acceptable to citizens and being financially responsible should be priorities of the council, Corey said. He acknowledged this can be tough to balance when the city faces major issues, including the lack of affordable housing, drug use and people who are homeless.
“Dealing with those is a challenge for the city and the police department,” he said. “I think we need to support people and get them the services they need.”
People’s needs are so varied that it is difficult to pinpoint one solution, but Corey said the council should help them access services, whether those are in Brewer or other locations.
“I’d like to think that with my background in IT and being a small business owner, I have some common sense,” he said. “It would be beneficial to the citizens of Brewer to have me on the city council.”
Adam Eldridge
Adam Eldrige is a Brewer native and University of Maine graduate who works as an engineer at Detroit-based Somatex Inc. Eldrige coaches his 11-year-old son in Brewer-based travel basketball and little league teams.
Eldridge, who ran for the council in November 2015, wants to see more businesses come to Brewer to help offset property taxes, which are too high now, he said. Economic development might also include building a hotel for visitors who can access the city’s riverfront trail and a multi-use sports complex being built behind Brewer High School, he said.
The district is transforming a field home to the high school’s baseball and field hockey teams, Superintendent Gregg Palmer said in December. It will eventually be a complex with artificial turf and natural grass surfaces as well as tennis, pickleball and volleyball courts, he said.
The council’s main priorities should be transparency and getting information to residents effectively, Eldridge said. He suggested that the city have a larger presence on social media to publicize meetings and events, which might increase participation.
Inflation and the rising cost of everything from groceries to electricity are some of the biggest issues that the city faces now and in the future, Eldridge said.
“I think it’s a struggle to walk the fine line of providing everything for the city but also not putting it all on the residents,” he said.
Eldridge is a numbers person and wants to participate in decision-making to understand the return on investment for the city, he said.
“I know there are hard choices to make when you’re on the city council, but I have a good head on my shoulders,” he said. “I would make good decisions for the whole community and not for just an individual.”
Dani O’Halloran
Dani O’Halloran has worked as a realtor at Realty of Maine for 26 years. She serves on the agency’s board that each month donates $2,000 to area nonprofits. Over the years, she was involved as a member of various boards, including the Brewer School Department’s committee, Brewer Federal Credit Union and United Technologies Center, she said.
Making Brewer a destination would be O’Halloran’s primary goal, along with attracting more businesses, she said.
“All towns are facing the same issue of high taxes,” she said. “It would be nice to bring in more businesses that would help our tax base and be family friendly.”
That might include businesses willing to create more recreational spaces beyond the school district’s facilities, she said, particularly for children on travel teams. O’Halloran wants families to have more access to athletic facilities because it was hard to find when her two daughters were growing up. Her husband coached travel teams over the years, and she was involved with coordinating venues for practices, she said.
O’Halloran also sees continued development of the waterfront trail as a positive boost for the city, including more events that encourage residents to get involved in their community.
Along with economic development, transparency and a strong relationship with the school system should be priorities of the council, she said.
“I’m an independent Mainer and a longtime Brewer resident,” O’Halloran said about why people should elect her to the council. “I care about the community. I would like to be a voice for residents.”