Bucksport’s town manager, Susan Lessard, will resign at the end of June after nearly a decade in the position.
She was originally set to depart at the end of the calendar year, but told the Town Council when submitting her resignation Thursday that her services won’t be needed full time for that long.
Lessard was first hired as an interim manager in 2015, in the wake of the closure of the town’s paper mill. She’d previously served nearly 15 years as the town manager of Hampden. She then became the permanent manager in Bucksport and held the role through efforts to diversify the town’s economy and navigate continuing challenges from the mill closure. Most recently that has included the mill property’s owners intent to abandon a dam in town and the pending closure of a former landfill on site.
When announcing her new resignation date Thursday, Lessard offered to help Bucksport navigate its dam and landfill situations at no cost to the town until they are resolved.
Paying her salary full time for another six months would cost the town a significant amount of money when it’s facing tough budget decisions and a need for leaner operations, she said. Existing staff have also been trained to help keep the town running in her absence.
Lessard praised Bucksport’s community, as well as its municipal employees and elected officials. Throughout her tenure, she said the town council has had members with strongly differing opinions who are able to have difficult conversations in a civil way.
“If you look around, that’s just not the characteristic of practically anywhere anymore,” she said. “But I think that’s the key to why Bucksport is successful.”
Lessard does not plan to serve as a municipal administrator again in the future. While she said she loves the job, there are parts of it she no longer loves, and she doesn’t have “what it takes” anymore to fully manage a town.
She said she believed the next 10 years would be twice as good for Bucksport as the last.
The council members accepted her resignation with regret. Chair Paul Bissonette said more information on a search for her replacement will be available soon, but council members are working to make sure the next manager can continue bringing the town forward.
