LINCOLN, Maine — Town Cemetery, Parks and Recreation Director Ron Weatherbee is Lincoln’s new town manager, officials said Tuesday.
The Town Council voted 7-0 on Monday to upgrade Weatherbee from interim to full-time manager with a $65,000 salary, Town Council Chairman Steve Clay said.
Weatherbee was named Lincoln’s interim town manager on July 21. Weatherbee, who earned $47,146 as parks and rec director, received an additional $288 weekly stipend for his interim role, officials have said.
“During the last few months, it hasn’t been the easiest of times with the town office issues and all, and he has done a pretty good job throughout that,” Clay said Tuesday of Weatherbee. “We just thought he deserved a shot at the full-time job. He is well known and respected throughout the community. [Weatherbee’s hiring] gives people in town someone they can look to that they trust and have confidence in.”
Weatherbee replaces Town Manager William Lawrence, who resigned effective July 11 to take a job in Florida. Lawrence, who was paid $71,500 when he left the post here, said he had hopes of retiring within a few years in Florida, where his wife’s family resides. He also said he was resigning because he felt some councilors were micromanaging. Councilor Dede Trask denied the accusation.
Hired as Lincoln’s police chief in April 2011, Lawrence was named town manager at a salary of $70,000 in June 2013. He had served as interim manager twice before.
Weatherbee did not immediately return a telephone message left Tuesday.
Twenty people applied for the town manager’s job, Clay said.
Among Weatherbee’s first tasks, Clay said, would be the restart of the search for a new town office. The new town manager also will have to deal with the results of a referendum vote Tuesday on whether to widen West Broadway.