For 30 years until last October, Sonja Eyler worked as a librarian, a profession she chose because it put her on “the front lines of literature.”
A career change put her a quarter mile down the street on the front lines of municipal government.
The city of Presque Isle hired Eyler to be its assistant city manager in October 2024. She worked in the role for six months before the resignation of former City Manager Tyler Brown thrust her into the interim city manager position. Three months and a “fairly extensive” interview process later, Eyler now permanently occupies the city manager’s office on the third floor of City Hall.
It’s just three blocks from her former workplace at Mark & Emily Turner Memorial Library, where she served as library director for 22 years, that proximity a direct parallel to how Eyler sees the transition.
“It’s not that huge of a bridge between librarianship and City Hall,” Eyler said. “I want to be able to make a bigger impact though, and city management is a position that you can be directly involved in just about every growth opportunity in your city.”
The City Council held interviews with finalists during an executive session in a June 12 meeting, after which they voted to appoint Eyler city manager. The council formally announced Eyler’s hiring during a June 17 meeting.
“We all felt that she performed the best and was the right person for the job,” Council Chair Jeff Willette said during the meeting.
Now, Eyler said, her focus shifts from maintaining stability in City Hall to developing and executing changes.
“I have a work plan that includes, certainly stability, but also includes relationship building, opening those lines of communication with citizens and laying a foundation of taking care of the basics and so that we can grow strategically,” Eyler said.
Growth, in her eyes, is both interpersonal and digital. The city expanded its output of content on Facebook and YouTube over the past year, producing featured videos on businesses and events. On Friday, Presque Isle launched an official LinkedIn page, which it says will serve as “A window into the work of local government.”
The city also recently hosted several local organizations for tours and luncheons at City Hall, including the Kiwanis Club, Presque Isle High School Student Government and the Evergreen 4-H Club. It’s part of an ongoing effort to make the building welcoming to the public.
“You can build the most beautiful building on the planet, but it’s not going to be warm and comforting unless the people inside it are warm and comforting,” Eyler said. “I firmly believe that City Hall is the people’s house. We want to keep it beautiful. We want it to appear as though we care very much about every single citizen that’s coming through the doors.”
Eyler describes herself as a “people first kind of person,” a sentiment reflected in her early goals for the role. She aims to unite the community through a “multi sector, cross agency approach within our municipality,” by building relationships between departments.
She also targeted combatting homelessness in the city as a major priority. It’s an issue that gained visibility in the last year after concerns about encampments in city parks caused the Presque Isle City Council to introduce an ordinance banning camping on public property without authorization. The ordinance was later tabled after public backlash.
The number of homeless people in Aroostook County rose from 58 to 78 in this year’s Point in Time Count, a survey conducted by the Maine State Housing Authority to gauge the current scope of homelessness in the state.
The city penned a release last week highlighting its efforts to coordinate housing navigation, mental health and substance use support and immediate outreach within its unhoused population.
“It is not acceptable to have anybody sleeping outside in our community, not in our town, and not in any town,” Eyler said. “Humans are valuable and they ought to have a way out of an encampment.”
“Serving all people” is a key tenet of Eyler’s approach to the position — and one, she said, that comes from her background.
“The library is a place where it does not matter what your socioeconomic status is. It does not matter what your political leanings are,” Eyler said. “All ideas are welcomed under the roof. That perhaps is the most important value that I have brought with me to City Hall — that I am here for all people, and every idea. While I may not necessarily embrace it, I am able to entertain the idea and to respect a person’s viewpoints.”
