Democracy Project
During this election year, the BDN’s politics team is focusing on how political polarization, cynicism and apathy is changing civic life in Maine. Read our full explanation of the series, see all the stories and share ideas by filling out this form.
HARRISON, Maine — This lakeside town in western Maine bills itself as the “Friendly Village.” Its political scene in recent years has been anything but friendly.
From parking lot confrontations to social media mudslinging that included character attacks, disputes and drama in Harrison have built for years among residents and officials, including Town Manager Cass Newell, a Navy veteran and a resident who got the job in 2022.
The division is not the remarkable thing about Harrison. Newell’s response is. In June, she gave an emotional speech during a select board meeting about bullying that had almost caused her to resign. She said her safety had been compromised, mentioning suspicious vehicles that pulled into her driveway on several occasions.
“Someone is going to get hurt,” Newell, 48, told the audience at the Harrison Town Office.
Others spoke up in support of Newell during the June 13 meeting. She says things have improved since she aired her feelings. But conversations with others in Harrison painted a picture of ongoing tension in the town wedged between Crystal and Long lakes with a population of roughly 2,500 residents that balloons to around 9,000 in the summer.
The bickering coincided with voters rejecting a school budget and funds for a full-time fire chief. It’s a reminder of how dysfunction in small towns can both exacerbate challenges in fulfilling essential functions of government and make life difficult for leaders who have stepped aside in places such as Naples after growing tired of online and in-person vitriol.
Various residents found on or around Harrison’s Main Street during a recent weekday gave a similar refrain — and often a chuckle —when asked about local politics and Newell. Everyone knows what has happened, but many in the small town are hesitant to talk about it openly.
“She has become a controversial figure,” Rick Sykes, a former Harrison Select Board chair and Republican state lawmaker who regularly gives critical comments of the board during public comment portions of meetings, said of Newell. “There’s no doubt about that.”
Newell grew up in a military family and served in the Navy as a nurse and paramedic. She became Harrison’s assistant town manager in 2021 before getting appointed manager in 2022. Her mother often sits at the back of the room during select board meetings.
While Newell and select board members faced budget-related challenges in 2022, rumors and social media comments ramped up after the exit in August of that year of Harrison’s recreation director, Kayla Laird. Newell has declined to comment on whether Laird was fired or had resigned, and state law prevents town officials from discussing personnel matters. Laird, now the town of Oxford’s recreation director, declined to comment.
Headaches with fire department staffing and the budget for the regional school budget have compounded the challenges facing Harrison officials. The town paid $17,000 last year for a study that recommended the hiring of a full-time fire chief, among other changes.
The same week as Newell’s June plea for an end to bullying, the annual town meeting concluded after Harrison residents voted against spending about $63,000 to hire a chief and overwhelmingly rejected a budget for the Oxford Hills school district covering several towns.
The school budget failed to pass for a second time in August amid opposition from voters in Harrison, Paris, West Paris and Oxford, despite officials cutting $2 million for deferred maintenance and more than $800,000 for instruction. MSAD 17 leaders lamented “misinformation” being shared. A third proposal totaling about $50.2 million will go before voters Oct. 8.
This month’s meeting of the Harrison Select Board hardly featured the drama that characterized past discussions, though two residents to speak during the public comment portion criticized board chair Matt Frank for how he treated Sykes when the former select board member complained about various matters at the August meeting.
Sitting two spots to the left of Newell was select board member Nate Sessions, who was critical of Newell and Frank in an interview earlier this summer, adding he moved his two kids to Oxford’s summer recreation program because he views it as better than Harrison’s program after Laird left.
“The town is going to continue to be stuck in this rut of lying, bullying and Facebook slander, and I hate it,” Sessions said.
Sessions conceded he confronted Newell in the town office parking lot after her June speech about how he also feels he has been the victim of bullying from Frank and another official. Things were calmer when Sessions and Newell passed by one another and separately spoke with a reporter in that same lot after a September meeting.
In an interview, Frank defended Newell and said the criticism she has faced is “totally unfair, because she kills herself for this job.”
“She does a good job,” Frank said.
Frank and Sykes agreed on one thing: Harrison has served as what Sykes called a “cash cow” for the area school district. It makes up about 6 percent of its school district’s student population but is asked to cover nearly a fifth of the budget, largely due to higher lakeside property values.
After all the recent drama, Harrison will turn 220 years old next year. Newell said she won’t let public criticism and harassment deter her from continuing to serve.
“I can handle myself. I literally grew up in the military,” Newell said. “I’m not one that’s rattled.”
