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By Dominik Lobkowicz
At their Nov. 12 meeting, the Waldoboro Board of Selectmen accepted the resignation of Town Manager John Spear, who is taking a job as an administrative assistant for South Thomaston.
The selectmen voted to hire former state Rep. Wesley Richardson, of Warren, to serve as interim town manager.
Spear has been serving as Waldoboro’s town manager since August 2011, when he was hired to replace Bill Post, who cited personal reasons when he resigned in January of that year.
Spear, who lives in South Thomaston, also served for 11 years intermittently as a selectman in that town.
“I’m downsizing,” Spear said in an interview on Nov. 12. “It’s four days a week, a smaller community, I’m hoping less stress[full], and it’s five minutes away from my house.”
Spear was the first town manager in Waldoboro to be hired on a contract, and though he renewed once, he said he told the selectmen this past spring he wanted to stay on as an “at will” employee and might be looking for an opportunity such as this.
“I didn’t know it would be five minutes from my house,” he said.
Under that arrangement, Spear said he was required to give 30 days notice that he was resigning. His last day with Waldoboro will be Friday, Dec. 13 and he will start in South Thomaston on Monday, Dec. 16.
Reflecting on his time in Waldoboro, Spear said, “I think we’ve accomplished a lot here in two years.”
Spear recalled a “lack of trust” present in the town when he was hired, which he said has “abated significantly.”
He also mentioned that in his letter of resignation, “I’m proud of the progress that has been made during my tenure as Town Manager, particularly when I reflect back upon the level of divisiveness and mistrust that existed when I was hired over two years ago.”
Spear said leaving his co-workers is going to be difficult.
“That was the hardest part of the decision … leaving these employees – they’re great,” he said.
Eileen Dondlinger, the town’s finance director, said Spear “served very well, he made changes for the good.”
“I think quite a few of us here are going to be sad to see him go,” Dondlinger said. “I know we’re going to be sad to see him go.”
At the meeting, the selectmen sat silently for a few moments when Selectman Chair Craig Cooley asked for a motion to accept Spear’s resignation.
“Extremely reluctantly, extremely reluctantly,” said Selectman Ted Wooster. His words seemed to reflect all the board members’ attitudes, who offered nothing but positive comments on Spear’s behalf.
“I hate to see John go,” Cooley said, adding that Spear and the board accomplished a lot during Spear’s employment by the town.
“We’ve covered a lot of ground to recover the trust of the citizens of Waldoboro,” he said.
After an executive session on personnel matters, the selectmen voted to hired Wesley Richardson to serve as the interim town manager. Richardson will begin work on Monday, Dec. 2 with a weekly pay of $1191.71, selectmen said.
At the request of Selectman Ronald Miller, vice-chairman, the board voted unanimously to have Spear compile information on town-owned property that may have marketable timber growth.
Miller said he has close contact with a paper company who could conduct a forestry evaluation and bid out the harvesting of the timber to local contractors.
A company representative could come to explain the process, he said.
Miller said he would like to see any proceeds from such a harvest go to a special account used to reduce the tax burden on the town.
Properly managed, any way of stands of timber on town property could be more valuable if harvested than if it sat unused, said Wooster.
In other business, the selectmen approved the appointment of Hans Nicolaisen as an interim member of the RSU 40 board of directors.
On his application, Nicolaisen wrote he was interested in the position to attempt to reduce school expenditures, especially those that are energy related.
Nicolaisen will fill one of two spots on the board left empty when members Christopher Duffy and Darrell Goldrup resigned in recent months. The interim positions run until the town’s annual municipal election next June.
There have been no other applications to fill the empty seats, officials said.
