June 6, 2025

RSU 14 budget and Raymond races on ballot Tuesday

By Ed Pierce

Town clerks in Windham and Raymond will be busy on Tuesday, June 10 counting ballots as residents will have their say about several races and determine the fate of RSU 14’s annual budget proposal.

Windham and Raymond voters will cast ballots on Tuesday,
June 10 regarding the RSU 14 annual budget, several
referendum items in both towns and Select Board and 
School Board candidates in Raymond. FILE PHOTO 
Voters in Raymond will choose between candidates Susan Accardi and Diana Froisland for a three-year term on the RSU 14 Board of Directors.

Accardi is a retired registered nurse and served as a school nurse with RSU 14. She has been a member of the Raymond Budget-Finance Committee for two terms, been a member of various short-term town committees, has served as a town ballot clerk and sits on the Board of Directors of the Friends of the Raymond Village Library. Froisland attended Gordon College and graduated from the University of Southern Maine with a double major in Economics and Business Administration. Along with her husband, she co-owns Northeast Property Management. She’s been a volunteer for the Raymond Parks and Recreation Department as a ski instructor, a regular town election worker, and previously served two terms on the RSU 14 Board of Directors from 2012 to 2018.

Raymond voters will elect two new members of the Board of Selectmen for the three-year terms. Candidates include Mark Meister, Christopher Hanson, Kaela Gonzalez and Frederick Miller.

Meister is a consulting executive at IBM Consulting and graduated with a degree in Business Administration from The Ohio State University. He has also served on nonprofit and community boards. Hanson is the code enforcement officer for Raymond and graduated from the University of Maine Orono. He also serves as a member of Raymond’s Budget-Finance Committee.

Gonzalez is a program coordinator with the city of Portland and has a degree in Health Science. She has served on various town committees including the town’s most recent Comprehensive Plan Committee. Miller is the owner of Miller Flooring LLC and went to trade school after high school. He serves on the town’s Zoning Board of Appeals.

Also on the ballot in Raymond is a referendum question asking voters to approve $67,500 in funding for a partnership with the Regional Transportation Program to establish a QuickRide program in the town. Riders using QuickRide would be able to schedule a micro-van that would pick them up at their home and take them where they want to go within the Raymond community if approved.

Also on the ballot, both in Raymond and Windham, is the RSU 14 annual budget for 2025-2026 of $67,861,394. The budget represents a 12.75 percent increase over last year’s $60,185,403 budget, with a 6.4 percent increase stemming from the construction of the new Windham Raymond Middle School. The 
school district will receive an additional state subsidy to cover almost half of the increase, resulting in an impact to taxpayers of 6.5 percent. Included in the RSU 14 budget regular operating expense increases and a Pre-K expansion program.  

Windham voters will gather at 10 a.m. Saturday, June 14 at the Annual Town Meeting to approve the municipal services budget for fiscal year 2025–2026.

The Windham budget proposal of $50,402,149 is a 6.39 percent increase from last year’s $46,991,715 budget and includes funding for several significant capital improvement projects.

If the budget passes, Windham will construct a new North Windham Public Safety Building housing firefighters behind Hannaford Supermarket on Route 302, design and construct new playing fields at Gambo Fields, build a new public ice rink and playground in North Windham, and continue funding for the North Windham Moves and sewer projects.

For Raymond residents, in-person voting will be from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. Tuesday, June 10 in the Jordan-Small Middle School gymnasium at 423 Webbs Mill Road in Raymond.

In Windham, RSU 14 budget voting will run from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. Tuesday, June 10 at Windham High School. The Annual Town Meeting to vote on the municipal budget starts at 10 a.m. Saturday, June 14 at Windham Town Hall on School Road in Windham.

Absentee ballots are available at the town offices for Raymond’s election and the RSU 14 budget voting. <

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