MILLINOCKET, Maine – Former Maine Senate President Charles Pray will be interim town manager if he accepts an offer the town has made, Town Council Chairman John Davis said Friday.
A Millinocket resident and one of three finalists to replace departing Town Manager Eugene Conlogue, Pray was a state senator from 1975 to 1992 and served as Senate president from 1984 to 1992.
“He fit all the qualifications we wanted, but all of them did. It was a tough choice. They were great candidates,” Davis said Friday. “He had the qualities we were looking but the others did, too.”
Pray did not immediately return a telephone message left Friday.
Councilors on Thursday voted 4-2 to accept Conlogue’s resignation, 7-0 to extend his contract to his Oct. 5 departure date, and 6-0 to hire the Maine Municipal Association for $4,900 to help find his permanent successor. Councilors Gilda Stratton and John Raymond voted against accepting the resignation and Councilor Jimmy Busque left the meeting early.
Conlogue is leaving the job to become Houlton’s new town manager. The Houlton Town Council voted unanimously to hire Conlogue during its meeting Monday.
The Houlton council began searching for a new manager in March, when Doug Hazlett resigned after seven years in the position.
Conlogue’s hiring came after the council thought it had found its new manager in Wade Hanson, who once worked as the town’s code enforcement officer and its community development director. Hanson resigned from that position last September to serve as the economic development director for the Houlton Band of Maliseets.
Then councilors announced on Aug. 13 that they had hired him to be the next town manager and expected Hanson to assume his post on Sept. 10.
Two weeks after he was hired, however, Hanson changed his mind. He gave no reason for his decision and remains employed by the Maliseets.
Pray’s experience at the state and federal levels more than makes up for his lack of local government experience, Davis said.
“He understands government process even though he doesn’t have experience at the local level. His other experiences will help him do this on the local level,” Davis said.
Like Conlogue, Pray opposes Roxanne Quimby’s proposed national park and is serving on a committee formed by the Penobscot County Commission to oppose the park.
Davis said he will meet with Maine Municipal Association officials on Tuesday to discuss how to find Conlogue’s permanent successor. No deadlines for that hiring have been set.
“I don’t look to have it be a fast process. It is a big job ahead of us,” Davis said.
“Hanson continues to work for the Maliseets” plenty of $$ to go around there, just google Tribalco, multimillion dollar operation, average salery 75,000.
Has anyone else noticed that there seems to be a weekly departure of Town Managers and School Superintendents in this state ? It seems that they are now going from town-to-town looking for the best offers. New blood .. that’s what we need .. not this old iron poor blood that has gotten us nowhere. Most of these deadbeats are collecting a pension and just want to add your tax dollars on top of that.
Roger Raymond did interim now he is out of retirement went to work for the Town of Hermon after 27 years in bucksport. he was too young to retire anyway.
i think charles pray is a good choice.
WOW–we are REALLY, REALLY fortunate if Charlie Pray will take the position! Politics on all levels has been so awful, this is such good news.
Yup just we need another high paying stuff shirt that will accomplish nothing, just as he did in the Senate.
Yeah, right, another stuff shirt against Roxanne Quimby. Enough to make taxpayers really sick. If the citizens of Millinocket don’t wipe the slate of the present councilors off the board, all they will see going down Main Street is tumbleweeds.
I agree. I drove through dowtown Millinocket during the Labor Day weekend, couldn’t believe how many business were boarded up. The I went past the airport and around to the recreation place, I think it was Three Rivers, and the place was packed with outdoor enthusiasts for prime-rib dinner. Outdoor enthusiasts patronizing an outdoor center. And yet the town manager and council are doing everything possible not to have a national park; makes you wonder what part of 2+2 they didn’t get.
So much for hiring someone without a hidden agenda. Might as well have cloned Eugene….sad day for Millinocket.
This could be fun. Millinocket has sued LePage and the State of Maine. Charlie Pray is certainly no new comer to Maine Politics and something tells me from reading his post on these message boards that he really isn’t a big fan of LePage’s. It should be an interesting few months in the soap opera that is called The LePage Administration.
Silly me, I thought the soap opera, in Millinocket, was named As the (Government) Checks are Cashed? It’s on the first of every month.
You must be thinking of the soap opera that runs on the local access channel. I am talking about the horror show that runs state wide.
Governor LePage could use a healthy dose of Charles Pray and so can Northern Maine politics.
What, BDN. Nothing about all of the Pray corruption when he was last in government? Hold onto your wallets Milinocketters, and don’t let him near any aircraft.
And don’t let him handle the hunting license money, either.
A person can’t help but wonder if some of you have been advised by your psychiatrists to take their frustrations out on the BDN comment section (rather than punching a pillow or family member) as a means of therapy. It’s this kind of negativity the plagues the country today. Pavlov’s dogs come out trained to go for the juggler. Not everyone agrees on anything but the venom is sickening. How about some open, civil discussion?
taking the lead from the guvna…..
I think open discussion is interesting and beneficial to all people.
Good choice and good luck Charlie!!
Bad choice as he is against a national park which is the area best hope for success
I agree.