Paul Dagle sworn in as newest East Lyme selectman
East Lyme — Paul Dagle was appointed and sworn in Wednesday as the newest member of the Board of Selectmen. He will serve the remainder of Holly Cheeseman's term, which ends in December 2017.
Cheeseman, a Republican who was elected in November as state representative for East Lyme and Salem, resigned from the Board of Selectmen to focus her time and energy on the state legislature.
First Selectman Mark Nickerson and Selectmen Marc Salerno and Kevin Seery voted at Wednesday's board meeting in favor of appointing Dagle, a Republican, while Selectmen Rose Ann Hardy and Dan Cunningham supported William Henderson, a Democrat.
Dagle is the director of facilities and construction support at Electric Boat. He has served on the Planning Commission and Board of Assessment Appeals and coached high school football and youth sports
He is the vice president and co-founder, with his wife, Ann, of the Brian T. Dagle Memorial Foundation.
Dagle said after the meeting that he wants to balance the needs of the community with fiscal responsibility by trying to keep taxes as low as possible, especially for younger residents and seniors.
Both Dagle and Henderson addressed the board on Wednesday.
Henderson, who ran for a seat on the Board of Selectmen in the last election in 2015, is a veteran of the Navy and has served on the Board of Education and as an alternate on the zoning board. He has worked for SNET, SBC, AT&T and Frontier Communications in his career and he oversees 6,000 members in Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Maine as a chapter president of Communications Workers of America.
Henderson said he thinks town officials have an obligation to look at the town not as a place to be developed, but as a place for people to grow and raise their children and families.
Nickerson thanked Dagle and Henderson, as well as Robert Wesley Firmin III, who also applied for the position. Firmin is a graduate of East Lyme Public Schools and his family's business is Firmin's Garage. Nickerson said there are always opportunities for people interested in serving the town and he looks forward to working with them in the future.
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