FARMINGTON — Since mid-July, Natalie Thomsen has been interning with the Town of Farmington.

The University of Maine at Farmington graduate from Lisbon is working towards a Master’s degree in policy planning and management at the University of Southern Maine.

“The internship was coordinated through one of my classes,” Thomsen said Tuesday, August 4.

Thomsen works for Farmington on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

“My biggest project is creating a capital improvement plan,” she said. “Farmington has one, it’s a couple years out of date.”

The 10-year plan identifies improvements each department believes are needed in the next couple of years.

“I’m working off the lapsed plan, meeting with department heads,” Thomsen said. “I’m asking them, ‘Did you meet all the things on the previous plan? If not, should they be on the next 10-year plan? Are there other things you want, and what do you expect to see coming up?’ It’s a way for me to get to see each department.”

Last Thursday, Thomsen toured the wastewater treatment plant.

“I’ve never seen one before. The department head (Stephen Millett) took me through the whole process,” she said. “I learned the water when it comes out of the plant is actually cleaner than the water in the Sandy River. That blew my mind when he told me that!”

Thomsen spent a day with the tax assessor while working on property reevaluations.

“That was really cool, I didn’t know how tax assessors work,” she said. “They go around, take pictures of structures, buildings, new buildings. It was interesting. I never saw the inner workings of how they work.”

Taxes are based as of April 1, so a house being built now isn’t billed until next year, Thomsen added.

Tuesday afternoon was spent with the fire department and Thursday Thomsen was scheduled for a ride around with the police department.

“I’ll see what a day is like for them. It will be exciting,” she said. “I hope they’ll say, ‘This is what we think about this spot or this is what we’re looking for.’ It will be my first time in a police car, that will be good.”

A day spent with the Treasurer, LucyAnn Cook, showed Thomsen about payroll and human resource information.

“I’ve been reading through the human resource manual for Maine. There’s a lot of stuff in there I didn’t know about,” she said. “I’ve taken a couple of human resource classes, but nothing that in depth.”

Another day was spent in the planning department.

“I mostly did filing. It was nice to sit down with the code enforcement officer (Steven Kaiser). It was interesting to pick his brain on things. Ultimately planning is what I want to do.”

Scheduling time with parks and recreation, public works and cemetery departments hasn’t been done yet.

“It could be kind of fun, meeting with the head of the cemeteries,” Thomsen said.

While the capital improvement plan will take up most of her time, Thomsen hopes to learn a bit about TRIO, the software program used in most Maine municipalities.

“The tax assessor gave me a project to make sure everything put into TRIO went in accurately,” she said. “I want to work in a municipality, being able to have experience with TRIO would help.”

Leaving Maine is not in Thomsen’s plan.

“My hope is to get as much experience as possible while in my Master’s degree.  Programs like this will be a nice support later when I apply for jobs,” she said.

Thomsen chose to go to UMF because it is a teaching college, but changed her major to business, she said.

“I fell in love with the town, liked that everything was close and can walk to it,” Thomsen said. “I loved the sense of community, even though I was only a temporary resident here.”

The Flint Woods trail is one of Thomsen’s favorite walks.

“I really like the Flint Woods Trail, it’s a great location,” she said. “Farmington is a great location. There are so many trails, mountains all around.”

The Downtown Press Cafe is Thomsen’s favorite restaurant in town, although she really liked the Irving’s Diner before it closed.

The internship with Farmington will continue through the end of August, Thomsen said.

“This is the third intern the Town of Farmington has had,” Town Manager Richard Davis said last week.

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