RUMFORD — Selectmen have settled on two candidates for interim town manager and are expected to make an offer to one of them next week.

Town Attorney Jennifer Kreckel is creating a contract per town laws, Board of Selectmen Chairman Greg Buccina said Thursday afternoon. Should the first candidate decline the offer, conditions and contract, Buccina said they will ask the second candidate. He declined to name either of them.

Buccina said he received 23 applications.

Town Manager Carlo Puiia tendered his resignation on Sept. 19, following an executive session of the board. Selectmen unanimously voted to accept it.

In his resignation letter, he said his decision was “a personal one,” and “based primarily on family values.” Later that month, Puiia told the Sun Journal that he resigned “to focus more on his family’s happiness and safety.”

He said he would stay until they appointed a new town manager, or until the end of the business day on Friday, Dec. 20, whichever came first.

Also in September, Mexico and Rumford unanimously voted to move forward with an inter-municipal proposal to share certain services. They hired New Hampshire consultants Municipal Resources Inc., who said it would assemble a comprehensive study of Rumford and Mexico to see if they could find areas to consolidate services.

Buccina said the Rumford board wanted to hire an interim town manager should the regionalization study determine that both towns could be operated by one manager. Mexico Town Manager John Madigan was former manager for Rumford.

“If the recommendation comes back to have only one town manager, then John would obviously be a prime candidate,” Buccina said.

In the upcoming weeks, Buccina said Municipal Resources Inc. staff will be auditing both towns to also determine whether they need two town clerks, two tax collectors and two assessors.

“It’s up to both boards to have the fortitude to make these things work,” he said.

He described the future action as a method to transact municipal business more efficiently for the good of both towns. It isn’t about merging both towns into one town and changing the name, he said.

“This isn’t about taking away identity,” Buccina said. “I want to be Rumford and Mexico wants to be Mexico. It’s simply a business opportunity with the least interruption of services and of people’s lives. Mexico will stay Mexico and Rumford will stay Rumford.

“The idea behind advertising for an interim town manager was because of the possible merging or combining of services with Mexico that in six to eight months, may recommend that we have one town manager for both communities,” Buccina said.

“If that were to be the case, then we did not want to have to hire someone that might be expecting to be the full-time town manager only to possibly not be considered to be the town manager for both communities,” he said.

“So all of the candidates understand that this is an interim position that might end or turn into a longer stint if that person were in fact selected to lead both towns in the future,” he said.

Selectmen chose four people from those 23 applications. Two were interviewed last week and two this week.

On Thursday, Nov. 21, Rumford selectmen will hold an executive session at the end of their regular business meeting and make an offer to the first candidate they’ve selected. Should the person accept, a contract will be drawn up and sent to the candidate. If the first candidate doesn’t accept, the second candidate will be offered the job.

Either way, Buccina said he believes Rumford will have an interim town manager in place by mid-December.

tkarkos@sunjournal.com

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