Well, we won’t have Mary Bowers to kick around anymore. Looks like we won’t have Arthur Faucher to dust up, either.
Town managers and municipal superintendents walk a particularly fine line because they are responsible to the public and they usually serve at the whims of a board. They are the public face of their organization; the front line, rarely getting credit for good decisions and usually fielding an inordinate amount of grief for the bad ones.
We wish the incoming town manager of Wiscasset luck. Whoever it is, is going to need it in a town where municipal politics is practically a blood sport. It is true, as their interim manager Don Gerrish said, Wiscasset has a lot to offer; its location, its culture, its history, but since adopting the town manager format, the town has seemingly made a habit of chewing managers up and spitting them out.
Faucher is just the latest casualty. There may have been disagreement about the use of comp time, but we are not really clear how this rose to the level of dismissal, as opposed to a reprimand or even a policy clarification. It feels kind of like shooting the dog for messing on the rug. It solves the problem, but the punishment hardly seems to fit the crime.
Faucher was a good, capable manager who served Wiscasset well until the tide turned against him. Frankly the way Wiscasset is going, before too long they may be hard pressed to find qualified candidates. Assuming a prospective employee does their own due diligence, why would they want to take that on when they can go somewhere else for what will likely be less grief and at least as much money?
As for Bowers, hopefully with her new opportunity ahead, she will move into a quieter, easier phase of her career. When it comes to municipal servants Bowers was one of the best.
The Sanitary District is going to have a hard time replacing her only because Bowers was uniquely qualified for the job. She had been there since the District was founded and over the years pursued higher education degrees specific to her job.
We wish both Faucher and Bowers luck in their future endeavors and we hope for the best for those who replace them.
Municipal employees come and go but it’s everyone’s loss when good ones move on.
