Government

Anne Gass announces bid for District 104 seat

Gray Resident Looks to Serve Gray/New Gloucester in Maine House

GRAY | Press release

Building on her long history of community involvement, Anne Gass has announced her intent to run for the Maine House of Representatives in the new District 104, which includes all of New Gloucester and western Gray. She will run as an Independent.

In the House, Gass plans to focus on continuing to keep property taxes low through full funding of the school funding formula, support economic development, and support working families and seniors through expanding access to affordable housing, child care, and health care.

Gass has lived in Gray for 34 years. She currently serves as Vice-Chair of the Gray Town Council. A pragmatist who likes to get things done, she is well known as an advocate for safe streets and sidewalks, preserving open space, and bringing people together to find creative solutions. She has served on the MSAD 15 School Board, on the 1990 Comprehensive Plan Committee, the Zoning Board of Appeals, and the Community Economic Development Committee. In 2012 she formed the Gray Bike-Ped Committee, leading the effort to write Gray’s Bike-Ped Plans, and writing a grant to fund the first phases of a new Village Area Loop Trail. She also worked with the Gray Community Endowment to purchase land to strengthen the popular Libby Hill trail network.

On the Town Council, Gass has worked with the fellow council members to keep the mill rate flat during the last two years, keeping property taxes affordable. She has also helped the G-NG ATV Club secure state funding to help repair ATV trails off of Long Hill Road; through her work with the new Open Space Committee, she continues to look for ways to preserve ATV trails. She has also worked to support small farms through creation of a Food Sovereignty Ordinance, and community revitalization planning in the village center.

Gass is self-employed and has run her own business, ABG Consulting LLC, since 1993. Among other successes, she has helped nonprofit and government clients win almost $170 million in federal grants that fund programs to help people in need. She is also the author of two books, Voting Down the Rose: Florence Brooks and Maine’s Fight for Woman Suffrage, about her great-grandmother, and We Demand: The Suffrage Road Trip, which is historical fiction.

“I’m excited by the idea of representing the people of Gray and New Gloucester,” says Gass. “Our towns have a long history of collaboration, and we have opportunities to continue working together not just in our school district, but through our Recreation programs, Fire and Rescue, and our trail networks. We share the benefits of being small, rural communities, and the challenges of finding ways to diversify our tax base. That’s why I’m running for the Maine House.”

For more information, contact: Anne Gass
207/650-4369
agassmaine@gmail.com

Anne Gass