NORWAY – Ken Morse is selling Grassroots Graphics to become the new project director at Healthy Oxford Hills.

He will begin working part-time at his new job next week, while continuing to work with the Main Street printing business during its transition to new ownership.

“I have a lot to learn about tobacco. But I’m really excited about doing nutrition work again,” said Morse, one of the founders of the Fare Share Co-op who formed the Oxford Hills Food Council some 20-plus years ago.

“In a way I feel I’m coming full circle,” said Morse, whose interest in printing was an outgrowth of his advocacy work on behalf of food cooperatives statewide.

Morse said Grassroots Graphics, which he began 17 years ago, will continue to operate out of the brick Tucker Block building at 290 Main St. owned by Shawn Casey. He declined to name the new owners until the sale is finalized, but said the business will be sold to “a local business whose graphic arts experience and skills will expand and strengthen the capabilities of Grassroots Graphics.”

Morse will replace Joe Wyman, who has been the project director at Healthy Oxford Hills for the past two years. Wyman is leaving to attend graduate school at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, Mass., to study public policy.

Healthy Oxford Hills, formerly known as the Oxford Hills Coalition, was formed in January 2001 with money from the landmark federal tobacco settlement case. It is one of 31 local Healthy Maine Partnerships overseen by the state Bureau of Health and has an annual budget of $211,000.

Morse said the Healthy Oxford Hills job is a natural extension of the community outreach work he has been involved in over the past four years. He served as project manager for the Fare Share Co-op’s relocation to a historic Main Street building. The exterior was restored as part of a state Community Development Block Grant to the town.

He has been active for several years in downtown revitalization efforts, and serves as president of the board of directors of Norway Downtown Revitalization.

In his new job, he said, “I will work to build a community coalition including health care providers, the schools and other community groups to achieve tobacco cessation and encourage better nutrition and physical fitness.”

He said he plans to continue the work of Wyman and Assistant Project Director Elizabeth Graffam in offering smoking cessation classes, tobacco and nutrition education in the schools, development of walking trails and community gardens.

Morse also plans to use his publishing skills to create an online and printed newsletter for Healthy Oxford Hills and other promotional material.

Morse, who grew up on an apple orchard farm in Waterford, has been a resident of Norway for 15 years. His wife, Nikki Millonzi, is an art teacher at Hartford-Sumner Elementary School, and has organized Norway’s Sidewalk Art Festival for the past two years.