WEST PARIS – Selectmen described their personal goals and objectives for the new town manager, Donald Woodbury, on Thursday.

This was part of West Paris’ transition process to a town-manager form of government.

Selectman William Birney said that the key issue for him is for the town manager to be responsive to the town’s financial needs.

“I feel we need, as selectmen, to have a monthly financial report from our town manager that communicates cost savings to the town,” said Birney. “Also, I feel he must challenge the staff to improve, coach improvement and set goals for the staff, as well as communicate issues to the selectmen. Along with this, he needs to develop goals for the future and work to create a self-sufficient operation for the town.”

Selectman Jim Johnston said, “The town manager needs to look at every single facet of town business. He needs to be the point man as to what can be done to save money, look carefully at how best to maintain town property and begin looking at where savings come in. I feel there is a need to form a committee to begin studying ways to save money in the future.”

Selectman Chairman Wade Rainey said, “The town manager must first serve the citizens in a manner they expect and show financial responsibility. There needs to be a deep concern for cost savings and regionalization to help us save money and be able to lower our annual budget. There are ways we can save and fulfill our objective of serving the town financially and seek ways to get businesses to come to West Paris. Serving the town is a big thing for the town manager and to do this as efficiently as possible.”

Woodbury told them, “I will take all your comments and meld them into a document that hopefully addresses all these issues and put them into something that is easy to follow. I will get these back to you later as a working document.”