DIXFIELD – Selectmen unanimously voted Monday night to hire Mexico Town Manager John Madigan as an interim manager for their town.
Whether this means the two towns will eventually share one town manager is not yet known, but Eugene Skibitsky, chairman of the Dixfield Board of Selectmen, said that’s a possibility.
“John will do a real good job. We’ve heard nothing but positive comments about him,” said Skibitsky.
Selectmen are expected to discuss hiring Madigan for the equivalent of half-time with Mexico’s Board of Selectmen and with Madigan by the end of the week.
Skibitsky said an emergency selectmen’s meeting will likely be called within a few days to work out the terms of an agreement.
“This could be a real positive thing for both communities. We are towns with a similar size and similar problems,” he said.
He said Madigan is expected to begin duties for Dixfield prior to the board’s next scheduled selectmen’s meeting on June 27.
The town will still accept applications for the position. The first round of applications that ended a couple of weeks ago, failed to result in hiring a town manager. A second round of advertisements began appearing in newspapers over the past weekend. It calls for a deadline of July 1 for submitting applications.
Madigan began work for the town of Mexico in January, following the resignation of former Town Manager Joseph Derouche. The last day of work for Dixfield’s town manager, Nanci Allard, was June 2. She had accepted a similar position in Vermont. Office staff and selectmen have handled the day-to-day duties of a town manager since then.
The two towns have been working cooperatively for a couple of years, including talks about possibly combining their police departments. That hasn’t happened, however.
The lack of a town manager has resulted in the inability to hire municipal employees, including a new police officer. At Monday’s meeting, Dixfield Police Chief Richard Pickett presented a candidate for the position, but was told that under state law only a town manager can hire a town employee.
If Madigan begins work soon, Eric Bernier of Livermore Falls is likely to be hired as the town’s fourth police officer.
In another matter, a majority of the board gave the go-ahead for Pickett to lease two 2005 Ford police cruisers. The department’s 1999 and 2001 cruisers will be used in trade.
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