MECHANIC FALLS – John Hawley may be the new town manager, but he certainly was no stranger to the councilors who appointed him to succeed Dana Lee, who stepped aside the first of July.
Three years ago, the Town Council named Hawley assistant town manager when Lee became intensely involved in Maine Municipal Association’s tax-reform campaign.
“The council backed Dana’s lobbying effort, but with all his traveling around the state, they soon realized they needed someone here to fill in in his absence,” Hawley said.
Hawley was a natural choice.
He had joined the Fire Department in 1990 as a firefighter/EMT. He was the town fire inspector in 1998 when he began work as the code enforcement officer and building and plumbing inspector.
Active in town affairs, Hawley has also volunteered as a soccer coach for the Recreation Department, served on the homecoming committee, the municipal safety committee and the E911 Preparedness Committee. He is also deputy fire chief.
“I intend to remain an active member of the Fire Department. When calls come in I do not have far to go to respond,” Hawley said.
He was 7 years old when his family moved from Auburn to Mechanic Falls, where he attended Elm Street School.
“I knew Mechanic Falls at its lowest of lows, through the mill closing and the downtown in depression and I have seen it rising up. I have a lot of pride in this community and look forward to helping it thrive,” he said.
Hawley’s path has had twists of its own. After graduating from Edward Little High School, he attended the University of Southern Maine intent on becoming an industrial arts teacher.
“They phased out the program. They figured, rightly it turned out, that the demand for industrial arts programs was on the way out,” he said.
He set off in other directions. After a time in the printing industry, he became a restaurant manager and, later, he worked as head of food services at Elan School in Poland.
A man with many hats, Hawley still works part time as an emergency medical dispatcher with United Ambulance and plans to complete work on his associate’s degree in business administration and management at Central Maine Community College next spring.
Hawley and his wife, Michelle, have two daughters, Alycia who will be a sophomore at Poland Regional High School, and Caitlin, who will enter the fourth grade at Elm Street School. As a taxpayer and a family man, he well understands the balance required to align the demand for services with the ability to pay for them.
Thus he intends to continue his predecessor’s goal of responsible spending.
“Dana left some big shoes to fill, but I have some pretty big feet,” Hawley said.
Being accessible is important to him.
“Every citizen, anyone who pays taxes, has a right to be fairly heard, and hear a fair response,” he said.
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