BIDDEFORD — Patricia A. Boston and Pete Lamontagne won a crowded race for the two City Council at-large seats up for grabs Tuesday.

Boston, who had been a Ward 1 councilor, led the field with 2,816 votes, or 23 percent of the total in the seven-candidate race. Lamontagne tallied 2,428 votes, or 20 percent.

All the candidates except for one in the at-large council race supported a bond proposal to borrow $34 million to renovate Biddeford High School, and all backed efforts to redevelop the city's mills.

Boston, 55, decided to run for an at-large council seat after a term representing Ward 1. A clinical informatics manager at Southern Maine Medical Center, Boston voted to put the high school renovation bond before voters but backed an unsuccessful attempt to cut the amount to $28 million, and tentatively supported the Maine Energy incinerator plan.

Lamontagne, 65, was seeking another term as an at-large councilor, a seat he has held since 2002. He is president of the council.

Lamontagne supported the school renovation bond and wants the city to work harder to bring back manufacturing jobs. He has been unemployed since the WestPoint Home textile mill in Biddeford closed early this year,

Roch A. Angers, 56, a produce manager for Shaw's, was looking to return to the council after a few years' absence, and supported the school bond and plan that Mayor Joanne Twomey worked out with the owners of the Maine Energy incinerator to have trash taken out of town to be processed into fuel pellets.

Bill Moriarty, 34, a clerk at a storage facility, supported the high school renovation and said there's a lot of mistrust between business leaders and city officials. Moriarty said he also wanted to see the city crack down on crime.

Brian Pelletier, 35, said he was running because, as the owner of a printing business and father of school-age children, he has a lot at stake in the city. Pelletier supported the high school bond and said the city and Maine Energy must follow through to make sure the proposal for the incinerator works.

Richard Rhames, a 64-year-old farmer, was the only candidate to oppose the plan for the incinerator, even though he's a big supporter of Twomey's. He said the plan doesn't get the incinerator out of downtown Biddeford and relies too much on federal stimulus money. He also backed the school bond.

Fred Staples, 54, would like to see Biddeford's airport renovated, saying it could fill a niche and generate jobs. Staples, a central office technician for FairPoint Communications and currently a councilor from Ward 2, opposed the school bond, saying the city needed to put forward a cheaper proposal.

In Ward 1, Jim Emerson, 56, narrowly edged Suzanne Y. Sexton, 60, by 488 to 464 votes, or 51.3 to 48.7 percent.

Emerson said his previous service on the City Council convinced him Biddeford must rethink how it makes budgets. He called for performance standards to measure the effects of city spending.

Sexton, 60, said one of her goals was to take responsibility for maintaining Biddeford's schools.

Both candidates supported the high school bond and plans for the Maine Energy incinerator.

Sexton, who had not run for office before, is an administrative assistant at Saco's wastewater treatment plant. Emerson, a finance executive for a Scarborough company, was appointed to the council to complete the unexpired term of another councilor in 2007, and served for seven months.

In Ward 2, David J. Bourque easily beat Dennis Anglea in a council race between political newcomers. Bourque won 558 to 256 votes, or 69 percent to 31 percent. Both candidates said redeveloping downtown is critical.

Bourque, 53, one of the owners of Xpressamerica, an Internet service provider and local phone company, said his background in construction might be helpful as the council looks at redevelopment plans. Anglea, 50, a business consultant,...