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Major changes will come to the University Park Town Council when the town holds its May 5 election.

Four seats in the seven-member council are up for grabs, and in only one of those races is the incumbent seeking another term.

"We usually don't have this high a turnover in a single year," said Mayor John Tabori.

Of the four contested seats, Councilman Mickey Lucas (Ward 2) is the lone incumbent. He is unopposed and seeking his third two-year term in office.

"I love this town. It's been good to me and good to my family," said Lucas, 75, a retired steamfitter. "When I retired ... I felt that I owed this town something."

Incumbents Lynn Dudinsky (Ward 4) and Kelly Fischer (Ward 5) have chosen not to run. Fischer, a council member since 2006, is planning to move out of the area. Dudinsky said he is ready to move on after a single term that he called both "mildly rewarding" and "frustrating."

"It takes so long to get anything accomplished," Dudinsky said. "I'm going to step aside and let somebody else take it."

Dudinsky's replacement in Ward 4 will be either Lenford Carey or Shelton Nickens.

Carey, 60, works for a nonprofit organization in Silver Spring. He said his main priorities would be to preserve town services and instill a sense of community.

"I work very well collaboratively across the spectrum of issues," he said.

Nickens, 64, is a part-time professor at the University of Maryland, University College. He hopes to curb town spending and property taxes if elected.

"I just think we need to look at what we're doing and ask how we can be good stewards of tax money," he said.

In Ward 5, Tracey Toscano, a town clerk in Edmonston, will run unopposed.

"I look forward to working with the residents and the government as a whole," said Toscano, 46. I certainly feel strongly about the University Park community and would like to preserve its services."

Peggy Winton (Ward 6) has served the maximum three terms and is no longer eligible. Virginia Myers and Anne O'Connor will vie for her seat.

Myers, 45, is an economist with the Congressional Budget Office. "Because I have a budget background, I thought that I could do a very good job of helping the town manage their money wisely," she said.

O'Connor, 47, is a geographer with the U.S. Census Bureau and self-described "realistic idealist" who moved to University Park in 2000.

"It would be a good opportunity for me to give some time back to the town," she said. "I would hope that I could bring a certain amount of common sense and intelligence mixed with compassion."

Tabori said the new council members will inherit a town that is "in very good shape financially."

"In the last four or five years we've had a really good handle on the budget," Tabori said. "I can honestly say that we're at very little risk of having a problem, in spite of the very difficult times that we're in."

Voting will take place at the Riverdale Presbyterian Church, located at 6513 Queens Chapel Road. Polls will be open from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m.

E-mail David Hill at dhill@gazette.net.