BETHEL — Natalie Andrews will start in her new job as town manager Monday.

“I am super excited,” the West Paris resident said. “I think Bethel is wonderful. I’ve always thought it was very quaint and beautiful. When the opportunity for town manager came up, it was one of those things that I didn’t stop to think about it. I just went for it.”

Andrews has been tax assessor for Norway for almost six years and director of the Maine chapter of the International Association of Assessing Officers since 2019, as well as chairwoman of the Oxford County Board of Assessment Review since 2017.

She is also chairwoman of the Maine School Administrative District 17 board of directors, and has been a director on Maine School Board Association-Region VI, which includes 22 school boards, for three years.

“School board is still very important to me,” she said. “Being on it has an impact and a value not just for SAD 17 but also to SAD 44, too, so I would like to be able to maintain that.”

SAD 44 includes Bethel, Greenwood, Newry and Woodstock.

With a lot on her plate already, Andrews said she’ll likely have to let a few other things go.

“If I find that I’m not present enough in anything that I’ve already signed on to, then unfortunately that will have to be delegated to someone who has more time,” she said. “I’ve pretty much given warning to everybody (that some of her commitments) will be dropping off like flies. The job is going to be my primary function.”

First and foremost, she said she wants people to get to know her, since she isn’t a resident.

Andrews grew up as a “Navy brat,” but had family in the area and came here in summers, “brook fishing, haying a field – doing things you wouldn’t learn on a Navy base. This was always the place to come home to.”

She is married and has three boys. The oldest lives in Pennsylvania, the middle son worked for Waterville and Norway police departments and is a motor vehicle inspector in South Paris, and their youngest just transferred from George Washington to the University of Southern Maine. She and husband, Mark, live in West Paris. He is a logger, and they have cows and chickens.

“We live quietly,” she added.

“I want to wade into the job gradually, get an opportunity to learn more about the town, get input from department heads,” Andrews said. “I’m going to want to learn as much as I can as quickly as I can.”

Some of the challenges she anticipates are learning more about the Bethel airport. “There’s going to be a learning curve,” she admitted, “but I’m not overly daunted because Bethel has such strong department heads. I try to be very pragmatic.”

As town manager, Andrews will oversee 15 full-time employees and more than 100 volunteer and part-time employees and administer an annual operating budget of $4.2 million, excluding schools, wastewater treatment, county tax and the airport.

“I am very excited at the opportunity to work in Bethel and for Bethel,” Andrews said. “My intention is to be able to take the intent of the residents and their Select Board and move it forward.”

Andrews succeeds Loretta Powers, who returned as Newry administrator, a position she held from 1998 to 2015.

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