Three candidates are running for two seats on the Old Town City Council.
Charlene Virgilio, Russell Sossong and Michael May are running for two three-year terms on the seven-seat council. Virgilio is seeking reelection; the other seat is currently held by Carol May, Michael May’s mother, who is not seeking reelection.
Residents can vote from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Tuesday, Nov. 4, at Elks Lodge, 37 Fourth St. in Old Town. Residents will also vote for two Regional School Unit 34 board members, an election warden and a ward clerk.
Candidates are listed below in the order they appear on the ballot.
Michael May
May is a social studies teacher at RSU 34 and an Army veteran.
May, 48, previously held a seat on the council from 2021 to 2024 when he won as a write-in candidate when no one ran on the ballot.
He said he didn’t seek reelection in 2024 because he wanted to spend more time with his family.
He decided to run for a council again after the recent close votes on RSU 34’s budget. May saw that as an opportunity to advocate for the city’s services, including the RSU and the library.
Maintaining the services Old Town currently offers and reducing taxes is not possible, May said, but the services in the city are worth it for residents. May said he wants to ensure the city is being fiscally responsible and not paying for things that it doesn’t need but also funding services that residents use.
“It’s being smart and not paying for things we don’t have to. But the things that we do, we should be non-negotiable about. We need a library. We need emergency services in this town,” May said.
Taxes in Old Town’s most recent budget rose 10% tax and 11 full-time and four part-time employees cut across the city.
To avoid similar cuts moving forward, May said the city needs to think about the budget differently and try to increase its tax base. To do that, the city should be trying to bring in new families by promoting the RSU and bringing back free memberships for kids to a local gym or recreation center.
Old Town previously had a partnership with the YMCA that gave free memberships to local children, but the program was cut in this year’s budget.
Russell Sossong
Sossong, 25, works in IT maintenance at United Technologies Center.
He earned a degree from Eastern Maine Community College after graduating from Old Town High School and previously ran for a council seat in June but lost to Katrina Wynn.
Sossong is the only candidate without previous council experience.
Sossong decided to run for a seat again based on what he heard from Old Town citizens while canvassing for the last election and at council meetings since. Residents are worried about being able to afford living in the city, he said.
Sossong said he wants to bring fiscal responsibility to the council to ensure the city’s budget is as low as possible and more reasonable for residents.
“The status quo cannot continue if they want Old Town to continue to be a place that people want to come to,” he said.
Sossong said a lower tax rate would bring in more families and businesses to the city and increase the tax base. The current strategies the city uses to bring businesses and residents in are not effective enough and put more of a burden on the citizens, he said.
“It seems that this economic development office is all for the taxpayer subsidies to get businesses to come to town. I don’t believe that’s the position of government, that the taxpayers of Old Town should be giving their tax dollars to incentivize businesses to come here,” he said.
Part of the budget problem Old Town is facing is because the current council doesn’t oppose increased spending and doesn’t question enough where funds are going, Sossong said.
Sossong said he would bring transparency to the council and be more approachable with the hope that more residents would attend meetings.
Charlene Virgilio
Virgilio, 64, has held a seat on the council since June when she ran unopposed for a six-month seat.
Prior to being on the city council, she spent two terms as a council member for the Penobscot Nation. Virgilio said she is running on three words: vision, experience and results.
She said vision comes from community interactions and listening to how residents and business owners think Old Town can do better.
Experience stems from her time in process management that can help her see how the city could be more efficient in its spending.
Results are what culminates from vision and experience, she said.
Old Town’s budget problem can’t be solved in any singular way, but there are multiple programs and contracts for the council to look into to try to bring the tax rate down, she said.
One possible solution is analyzing the city’s contract with the Juniper Ridge landfill in Old Town to find ways the city can gain from having the site.
“I feel our town is really carrying most of the risk. I’d really like to see us get some kind of escrow account or a different solution for community benefits” to obtain additional revenue, Virgilio said.
The city should lean into its riverfront and attractions to be more appealing to tourists and bring in retail businesses, she said. At the same time, the city shouldn’t stray from the success it’s seeing with larger businesses in the industrial park.
Old Town’s staff is vital to the city and can be more efficient if positions such as an assistant city manager were filled and a communications position was created, she said. She wouldn’t consider cuts because the city is already low on resources and employees.
