Julie Keizer stands outside her Damariscotta home on Monday, May 11. Keizer, the town manager of Waldoboro, marked 40 years of working in public service this month. (Christine Simmonds photo)
For Julie Keizer, life in Maine is a failed retirement plan.
She and husband Ron had a specific intention when purchasing their small home along a tributary of the Damariscotta River.
“It was going to be the retirement home,” Keizer said.
But a quiet life of leisure just wasn’t in the cards for the Jersey girl. Instead she took a job as the town manager of Waldoboro, a distinctive and socioeconomically diverse community.
Keizer and her husband Ron moved to Damariscotta from Waretown, New Jersey, in 2017, taking up permanent residence in their previously seasonal home. The couple had always planned a transition to full-time Maine life, just not until retirement. Those plans were significantly sped up when their three children all moved to the Pine Tree State and started having babies.
At that point she had been working in municipal government for 30 years, and was considering a change in careers to coincide with the move.
“And then I found Waldoboro,” Keizer said.
Her interest in the job was piqued from the moment she walked into the interview and found herself faced with the entire hiring committee.
“I was ill-prepared for the sheer number of people,” she said. “Any interview I’d ever been on, there’d been at the most three people. I think there were 22 people in the room … it was a lot of people.”
Her interview lasted two and a half hours, during which Keizer learned a lot, she said.
“It was really, really interesting,” she said. “You could tell by the questions what their concerns were and what they really wanted.”
What they really wanted, she said, was somebody who cared and was brave enough to speak difficult truths when necessary. Keizer knew that was her.
So even though she already had another job offer at a different town, she went back to Waldoboro for a second round of interviews with the select board.
“And the rest is history,” she said.
She knew it wouldn’t be the easiest job, but for Keizer that was part of the appeal.
“I’m not afraid of a challenge,” she said. “I actually think I thrive better when there’s a challenge.”
She also recognized the job as a chance to make a real and positive impact.
“I thought, I could actually spend my next 12 to 15 years doing something worthwhile,” Keizer said. “I just thought that Waldoboro needed someone like me. And I felt that I needed Waldoboro.”
She also thinks there is something special about the town.
“Waldoboro’s a very unique community,” she said. “It is so diverse in so many different ways… I can have a CEO of a million-dollar company come in [to the town office] or I can have one of my clam diggers come in.”
She said that mix of the residential population is one thing she loves about the former German settlement.
“It’s a great mixing pot,” Keizer said.
This May marked Keizer’s 40th year in public service and her ninth working for Waldoboro. During that time, she has accomplished a lot for the town. She is proud of what she has achieved, the work environment she has fostered at the town office, and the relationships she has formed with the residents.
Waldoboro Town Manager Julie Keizer sits behind her desk at the Waldoboro town office on Tuesday, May 13. Keizer has worked for the municipality for nine years. (Christine Simmonds photo)
One thing Keizer said she is most proud of in her career is the community navigator program, which connects Waldoboro residents with essential needs like food and heating assistance. Keizer was fundamental to the program’s 2020 inception, in conjunction with the Central Lincoln County YMCA in Damariscotta.
“I actually got to see how that directly affected people’s lives,” she said. “To me, that’s one of the greatest things that I was ever part of.”
The town office’s Boxes of Joy program, based off of Toys for Tots, is another special project for Keizer. When the person running Toys for Tots retired, Keizer said she and the town office employees realized local families didn’t really need more toys. Instead, they changed it to focus on providing useful items that Waldoboro children really needed.
“That program is like my pride and joy,” Keizer said. “It is one of the most rewarding things because you get parents who are genuinely in need.”
Each package for Boxes of Joy includes two age-appropriate toys, a pair of new mittens, a hat, winter boots and a winter coat, socks, one outfit, pajamas, books and a family game.
Any Waldoboro resident can fill out an application for the Boxes of Joy program, and the town office also accepts monetary donations. Keizer and the town office employees review the applications for approval, purchase the items for each box, assemble the boxes, and deliver them to qualifying families.
Keizer said she has seen the town office become more technologically advanced as well, and credits that to some younger office staff she hired. She jokingly calls them “my millennials.”
“It’s one of those things I sometimes get beat up a little bit for. I hire too many young people,” she said.
Keizer has hired a younger police chief, EMS chief, and younger town planners. But she said those hires were all based on their skills and what they offered the town.
“It’s a very funny thing,” she said. “People always put millennials down, and I always say, you know, I think they’re pretty good and useful human beings.”
While her move to Maine was her failed retirement, Keizer said she has a new plan in the works.
“I’m not thinking about retiring, but I am thinking about what should it look like?” she said. “I want to make sure that I leave a cohesive team for whoever walks in … I just want to leave (Waldoboro) better than I found it, and I want it to be in the hands of the future.”
(Do you have a suggestion for a “Characters of the County” subject? Email info@lcnme.com with the subject line “Characters of the County” with the name and contact information of your nominee.)
