Greg Zinser started his job as Damariscotta’s town manager on Aug. 1, 2006, as a 26-year-old fresh out of graduate school.
Five busy years later, Zinser is preparing to start the next phase of his career as the manager of York County.
Zinser, 31, of Waldoboro, is a native of southern New Hampshire. He received his bachelor’s degree in forest management from the University of New Hampshire and stayed on at his alma mater as the school’s transportation coordinator.
In that position, responsible for parking lots, roads, vehicles and related construction projects, among other things, Zinser began to realize his talent for administration and public relations – his ability to multi-task, solve complex problems and think and plan strategically.
Taking advantage of the educational benefits offered to university employees, Zinser completed his master’s degree in public administration.
Shortly after graduation, he applied for and received the position in Damariscotta. Despite beginning the job without any prior municipal management experience or the benefit of his predecessor’s guidance (Damariscotta had been without a manager since Bill Post resigned six months earlier), Zinser managed the leap well.
Zinser describes his management style as “direct but very easygoing,” laid back and results-driven. “That’s worked really well for me here and I like to think it’s worked very well for the employees as well,” he said.
Zinser is proud of the accomplishments of his tenure, including the town’s receipt of $1.5 million-plus in grants with minimal municipal matching funds.
The grants paid for repairs to Church Street and will pay for upcoming sidewalk construction on Bus. Rt. 1.
Grants offset the cost of engineering a sidewalk construction project on Bristol Road and a major overhaul of the municipal parking lot. They paid for facets of the planning processes that created the Damariscotta SmartCode, the Heart & Soul Planning Charrette Report and the shore and harbor plan.
Zinser sees the creation of the extensive, if sometimes “messy” community planning process as another success of his administration.
The democratic, public workshop process led by the Damariscotta Planning and Advisory Committee “really put Damariscotta on the map,” Zinser said.
The town office regularly receives calls from other municipalities asking about the process, Zinser said.
Community planning has also “created a strategic plan for the town in terms of infrastructure-related capital investments,” Zinser said, giving the town an advantage in the grant application process.
“We’re already starting to think about another round of grant applications,” Zinser said, with the “rehab of the parking lot and the boardwalk” a priority.
“We’ve been very successful in securing grant funds to really get these projects moving forward,” Zinser said. “The planning process has really allowed us to make these inroads and make these dreams people have always had a reality.”
Zinser also prides himself in his legacy of transparency and strong community relations. If any resident believes otherwise, Zinser has a challenge for them: “Did you ever ask?”
“This door’s always been open,” he said.
Zinser will clean out his desk Wed., Sept. 7, and take nearly a month off while, with his wife and two-year-old daughter, he looks for a place to live. He’ll start the York County job Mon., Oct. 3.
Zinser maintains that the key reason for the move, as he wrote in his resignation letter, is York County’s proximity to the young family’s relatives and friends, most of whom are scattered around Derry, Dover and Manchester, N.H.
The location will allow for easy day trips and give Zinser’s daughter the opportunity to grow up alongside her cousins.
“The pull of family is what’s really the most important thing at this point,” Zinser said.
Damariscotta has hired an interim town manager to fill in until the town hires a full-time replacement. Whoever eventually takes on the position, Zinser will be “only a phone call away,” he said, ready to assist and answer questions.
Dick McLean, the former chairman of the Damariscotta Board of Selectmen, worked alongside Zinser throughout the latter’s tenure.
Zinser “made me feel that what we were doing was a partnership,” McLean said. The manager was “open and honest,” informative and generally “superb to work with,” he said.
With his successful pursuit of grants, Zinser “more than earned his salary,” McLean said, and the long-time selectman hopes his former colleagues keep that tidbit in mind during the hiring process.
“If you get someone that’s really good, they pay for themselves,” McLean said.
