CAMDEN, Maine — Two days after residents debated at length on whether the town needed a community development director, the appointment of a new director was announced.
The appointment of Karen Brace as community development director was announced Friday in the agenda for the select board’s Tuesday evening meeting.
Brace is currently the membership director for the Penobscot Bay Regional Chamber of Commerce.
She succeeds Brian Hodges who held the position for a little more than three years before resigning in August 2014 for a private sector job. Hodges had been the town’s first full-time community development director.
At the annual town meeting on Wednesday evening, the issue of the community development director position dominated debate. There was an approximately 40-minute debate on whether the position should be kept or cut from the municipal budget.
In the end, residents voted 35 to 19 to turn back an effort to cut the budget by $70,879 which would have eliminated funding for the job.
Select Board member Leonard Lookner, who was elected Tuesday to a second consecutive term, said he saw no need for the town to spend money for the position. Lookner said downtown spaces were full and merchants are having a great year.
Select Board member John French Jr. who was also re-elected Tuesday, to a seventh term, said he was skeptical of the position at first but has since become a supporter of it.
Town Manager Patricia Finnigan said the town is fortunate to have volunteers work on economic development, such as the economic development advisory committee, but that a volunteer can’t put the 40 hours a week into attracting businesses to the community and helping existing businesses.