By Nate Jones

Staff Writer 

Mary Ann Lynch said she would have finished her term as chairman of the Cape Elizabeth Town Council if she could have. After seven years on the council, chairman in her most recent term, Lynch has accepted the position of the director of information for the Maine Judicial System.

“The judicial system is very clear that you can’t hold any kind of public office,” she said. “The job wasn’t going to wait. I couldn’t pass it up.”

Lynch said she’s excited to be getting back into the workforce. It isn’t the first time she’s represented a state branch for the public; she worked as vice president of public and government affairs for Maine Yankee until the plant was closed in 2000, she said. 

“Now I’m a state employee for the second time in my career,” she said. 

Sixteen years as an attorney will also come in handy when explaining the court system to the public and the media, she said. Her first assignment will take her to Sanford as part of the Supreme Court’s “Courts in Schools” program.

“They actually have their arguments inside different high schools all over the state,” she said. “There will probably be some media there and some other people I’ll deal with.”

Lynch said she was originally inspired to campaign for town council because she wanted to “maintain the natural environment and expand the trail system,” and help the town rebound from several large construction projects.

“We had just built a new police department, fire department and public works building,” she said. “I was concerned about the amount of debt the town was getting into.”

Lynch said she always tried to find a “middle of the road” position on most issues, including the municipal and school budgets. 

“There are always one or two councilors voting because they think it’s too high or too low. I tried to find a middle course, sometimes that makes no one happy,” she said. “Taking a moderate approach preserves the town services and maintains the quality of the schools and does so at the lowest cost to the taxpayers.”

“Middle of the road” doesn’t necessarily mean not approving new projects; Lynch said she is proud of the improvements made to the trail system, including the Winnick Woods project, and she was also pleased to see the construction of a new high school and kindergarten building during her time on the council. 

“Those were both projects that were sensitively done,” she said, and compared the cost of the buildings to similar projects in neighboring communities. “And people will probably call me the ‘traffic light queen,’ but I am gratified I had a role in the traffic light at the intersection for the high school. It was impossible to make a left hand turn there and I have had many parents thank me since.”

There are some projects Lynch said she was disappointed hadn’t been completed before her resignation, 

Lynch declined to comment on the Maine Department of Transportation’s proposed stoplight for the intersection of Scott Dyer and Ocean House road on the basis it was “too political.”

“Right now I’m focused on my new job,” she said. “The next year is going to be extremely difficult but I have the confidence that the town manager and the current councilors will help the town get through it.”

Nomination papers for Lynch’s unexpired council seat are currently available at the Cape Elizabeth town clerk’s office before Dec. 1. Any resident seeking a council position should be “ready to do the work,” Lynch said. 

“I call it being in traffic,” she said. “It’s talking to people at the IGA and football games so you can vote knowledgeably. Sometimes it takes several hours on a Sunday morning but you have to do it.”