MINOT – Rhonda Irish has spent virtually her entire life in small-town Maine. Now, as Minot’s new town administrator, she has the opportunity to help fashion life in this small town.
In her first week on the job, selectmen assigned Irish the task of leading meetings of the committee revising Minot’s comprehensive plan – a plan that must, among other things, deal with how Minot’s large tracts of open space, former farmland, should best be developed.
“It has become very, very hard to make an adequate living by farming. We’re down to just a few dairies but there are some interesting alternative farms making it. Farming around here is changing,” Irish said.
Irish has a deep-rooted connection to dairy farming. She grew up on one in Lisbon. It was a family farm, and she and her four sisters did their share.
Her family was, and still is, involved in Lisbon town affairs. Her grandfather, Howard Ricker, was fire chief in Lisbon for 50 years, and her father, Wayne Ricker, now runs the transfer station.
After graduating from Lisbon High School, Irish earned a bachelor of science degree in agricultural and resource economics at the University of Maine in 1982. Her college curriculum involved “a lot of economic and business courses,” she said.
Three weeks after graduating from college, she married Jeffrey Irish and moved to Jay, where her husband was, and still is, employed at International Paper.
For the past 12 years, Irish has worked as the recycling and solid waste coordinator for the town of Jay, managing the Regional Recycling Facility and Transfer Station. The facility handles solid waste for eight towns and provides recycling services for five towns.
Prior to that, Irish was the educational coordinator for the Franklin County Soil and Water Conservation District, devising agricultural and natural resources education programs.
“I think it was probably 1990, we began the annual Open Farm Days, started it for Oxford, Franklin and Androscoggin counties, to give the public a look at what goes on in running a farm. The state has now picked the program up and opens up about 10 farms per county all across the state,: Irish said.
Earlier still, fresh out of college, Irish worked for two years for what was then Northeast Bank, in the management program, and then, while her two children were young, she did some substitute teaching in Jay, Livermore Falls and Wilton.
“For years, our spare time, our big hobby, has been following kids’ sports. Football, softball, basketball, field hockey, Boy Scouts. There are going to be some adjustments now, with the kids leaving,” Irish said. The kids, Irish explained, are Allyson, who graduated from Jay High School and now attends Kennebec Valley Community College, and Ben, who graduates this June from Jay High School and will attend the Maine Maritime Academy.
Commenting on her first impressions of Minot, Irish said, “I’ve only been here a week, but everybody is really upbeat about their town. The people I meet on the committees and the employees care about their town and the future of their town.”
In order that she might help the realization of a bright future for Minot, Irish added, “I welcome people to drop by here at the Town Office and to come right on in.”
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