 |
Longtime Jefferson Selectman Jim Hilton (D. Lobkowicz photo) |
Buy this photo |
By Dominik Lobkowicz
Jim Hilton is stepping down next month after roughly 23 years service on the Jefferson Board of Selectmen.
Along with 6.5 years on the town’s school board in the 1980s, Hilton will have served close to 30 years in public office for Jefferson.
Hilton and his wife, Jo Anne, moved to Jefferson in 1979, but Hilton said in an interview May 19 he’s “been in and out of town forever” because his parents owned a camp on Dyer Long Pond since 1950 and his mother’s parents lived in town.
Hilton is stepping down because he and his wife will be downsizing and moving to Augusta. Despite the move, Jo Anne will be staying on as minister for the United Baptist Church in South Jefferson – a position she has held for close to 25 years, Hilton said.
“We just wanted to be closer to town, to doctors, the hospital, and so on. We’re making three to four trips a week and as we’re getting older we just felt we needed to get closer,” he said.
Hilton first held public office when he appointed to the town’s school board in the ’80s because someone resigned. He was later re-elected to two three-year terms.
After being out of office for two years, someone encouraged him to run for selectman in 1989. He has served on the board most of the years since, barring roughly two years around the turn of the century when he resigned to tend to his grandmother’s estate.
“These two gentlemen sitting here,” Hilton said while indicating where Selectmen Greg Johnston and Robert “Jigger” Clark were seated earlier that evening, “I served on this board with both their fathers, so I’ve been here a while.”
“Hate to see you leave,” Johnston said when Hilton passed around copies of his resignation letter at the board’s meeting that evening. “I appreciate all your time and service you’ve put into this town.”
Hilton’s resignation will be effective at the end of the selectmen’s meeting on June 30.
Johnston and Clark can decide whether to hold an election to fill Hilton’s seat, which will take about 3.5 months, or leave it vacant until town meeting next March, according to Town Clerk Lynne Barnikow.
Hilton said a lot has changed since he joined the selectboard in 1989.
“Those days were so informal. We’d go into that office every Monday night from 7 to 9, you’d just sit there and do whatever paperwork,” he said. “If somebody wanted to talk to you, they’d just come in, sit down, and talk. Out they went when they were done.”
Hilton said his first change on the board was writing down minutes of the board’s actions.
“When I first was in it, there was no written records. Nothing. You just didn’t do it,” he said. “I did suggest that, maybe someplace here we ought to start writing some of this stuff down and putting it somewhere so somebody has a clue what we’ve been doing and we have a clue.”
The board also adopted a written agenda, and switched to every-other-week meetings when the warrants needed to be signed.
“Townspeople really didn’t get up in arms about it; I thought probably they really would. They kind of understood, why are you there every week if there’s not business to do every week,” Hilton said. “As we’ve come up through it’s worked out.”
During Hilton’s time on the board, he said the selectmen helped get the sand and salt shed built, an expansion put on the town office, and fund the construction of the new fire station, but took little responsibility for it as member of the three-selectman board.
Hilton did say the elimination of the first, second, and third selectmen’s seats was the result of his actions.
“I did manage to do away with that. I will take credit for that one,” he said.
Hilton holds those specific offices were unnecessary when a board-elected chair could serve the same purpose.
“Did you really want somebody coming in off the street who knew nothing and being in charge?” he asked. “No, you want somebody who’s been there at least a while and has some idea.”
Hilton’s primary career was as a school teacher – first in Greenville for 12 years, then in Wiscasset for 17. He collected tolls on the Maine Turnpike as a younger man; did landscaping for Wawenock Golf Club in South Bristol after retiring from teaching, and currently works for N.C. Hunt Lumber in Jefferson.
He shifted over to Hunt’s because it was significantly closer to home and had year-round work available.
“I still liked the golf course better. It was a fun job, it wasn’t really work,” Hilton said.
“It just was something different all the time, after 29 years of being in that room all the time watching that thing over there,” he said, gesturing to a clock. “Everything you did was tied to a clock.”
After moving to Augusta, Hilton said he is looking at full retirement.
“I’m not intending to do anything. We’ve got a little 100 by 100 lot, we’ll take care of it,” he said.
Hilton will not be running for city council in Augusta.
“It’s another world, thank you. I grew up in Augusta and I’ve followed Augusta politics ever since. No,” he said.
Asked for his secret to public service, Hilton said, “Just try to do what you think needs to be done. Get the town the services they want and try to do it as cheaply as you can. I think that’s what we’ve done. There’s people in town that think we’re pretty liberal but again, some people the other way don’t think you spend enough. You just sort of walk the middle land.”
“I’m happy with what I’ve done,” Hilton said. “I can look myself in the mirror and say, ‘I guess you’ve done alright.'”
