OXFORD – Oxford Town Manager Mike Huston announced Thursday he is leaving his job at the end of July.

Selectmen accepted his resignation and will meet next Thursday to decide how to go about the search for his successor.

Huston, who was hired in February 2002, is leaving to take a position elsewhere in the state related to municipal government. He declined to give details of the new job until a vote is taken next Tuesday to make his hiring official.

“It’s an interesting opportunity, and there’s a significant difference in pay,” Huston said. “Put those things together, and it makes sense.”

Selectmen renewed Huston’s contract last month. He receives a salary of $950 a week, or $49,400 a year.

Huston was hired at a time when townspeople were at odds with selectmen and his predecessor, Jim Rhodes. He said on Friday that he believes his tenure as town manager has helped to bring some needed stability to town government.

“Oxford is a different community than it was 2 1/2 years ago,” he said. “Physically, we’ve seen improvements to the roads, and there’s more of an atmosphere that the town and selectmen are on the same page.”

As a resident of Lisbon Falls, Huston said he was able to bring an outsider’s perspective to bear on challenges faced by the town.

“I brought a willingness to look at all sorts of options, to listen to what people had to say, to provide information to the board and the town so that decisions could be made in a timely fashion and followed through on,” he said.

His tenure was not without controversy, however. Some residents were against his hiring when they learned he had been disciplined in the past while practicing law.

He faced criticism for his handling of environmental problems at the town’s waste transfer station, and his failure to file tree growth tax documentation in a timely manner.

Selectman Dennis Sanborn said selectmen would like to find someone who lives in the area to be manager.

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