BETHEL — When he’s not working on town government issues, new Town Manager Jim Doar is in Augusta every Thursday night teaching state employees about public budgets and financial management.

Doar, 31, of Bethel, said Wednesday afternoon that the moonlighting job as an adjunct professor at the University of Maine at Augusta is the first time he’s ever taught a class.

“It’s interesting, I’m enjoying it,” he said. “But it probably doesn’t pay enough on gas to get up there and back.”

Doar said he got the job after applying and learning the regular professor had suffered a medical condition prior to the start of the course and couldn’t teach it.

Before taking the job, he said he checked with Board of Selectmen Chairman Stan Howe who didn’t see any conflicts between running Bethel and teaching in Augusta one night a week.

Doar said selectmen then gave him unanimous consent to take on the four-month teaching position.

Doar is an Aroostook County native, who graduated from Caribou High School in 1996, then enlisted in the Army, serving three years with the 82nd Airborne Division.

He then returned to school, earning a bachelor’s degree cum laude in political science from the University of Florida in 2003, and a master’s in public administration from Florida State University in 2005.

He also served as Rumford’s town manager in 2007, left a year later for a financial analyst job with the NewPage Corp. paper mill in Rumford, got downsized out of that position, and hired in July to helm Bethel.

According to his three-year town manager contract, he will be paid $52,000 the first year, $54,000 the second year, and $55,500 the third.

According to a UMA description of Doar’s course on public budgeting and financial administration from Aug. 31 through Dec. 19, the 4-to-6:45-p.m. class provides an analysis of political and technical aspects of the budgeting process.

He is teaching his nine students about governmental financial conditions, revenue collection and spending processes. He’s also covering specialized topics like cash management, risk management, debt management and capital budgeting.

Additionally, special emphasis is placed on financial management in state and local governments.

By teaching the course, Doar said he thinks it will raise Bethel’s profile and its town office in the minds of state officials in Augusta.

“Hopefully, state employees taking the class will have a better appreciation for local government,” he said.

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