POLAND – Boredom is bringing Dana Lee back into public office.

Lee, the former Mechanic Falls town manager, has been chosen to succeed Richard Chick as town manager of Poland at the end of this month. Chick, who has served for 33 years, announced in April that he would not seek reappointment.

Lee, 45, is scheduled to begin working with the town on Wednesday. Chick’s last day is Friday, June 30.

“He has a lot of institutional knowledge, so I’m going in a couple of days early just to observe and talk to staff about what they see,” Lee said.

He spent 16 years as the town manager of Mechanic Falls, immediately north of Poland. During that time, he was also leader of the campaign to force state governmnet to honor its 20-year promise to fund 25 percent of the cost of public education, and he was named Maine’s town manager of the year in 2004 and president of the Maine Municipal Association in 2005.

“When I left Mechanic Falls, I felt like I had really run my course there,” Lee said. “I felt a little bored, like there was no challenge left.”

He left Mechanic Falls on June 30, 2006, and kept busy as a lobbyist for the Maine Fire Chiefs Association and the Maine Wastewater Control Association, and as a real estate agent and consultant. But those jobs weren’t fulfilling, he said.

“After a year away from municipal government, frankly, I began to miss the challenges I had,” Lee said. “Really, for me, my daily reward was overcoming those challenges.”

Leo Ferland Jr., chairman of the Poland Board of Selectmen, said the town received 23 applications for the job. A committee interviewed candidates and presented their favorites to the board at a June 14 executive session. Selectmen met with the committee again June 16 for a special executive session and settled on Lee.

“He certainly has years of experience in this area and good organizational skills and the ability to get things done,” Ferland said.

Lee said he’ll concentrate on finishing two years’ worth of town financial audits right away.

“I’m excited to get back into it,” he said. “Poland has tremendous potential, and they seem ready for some changes. I like to think of myself as a change agent.”