Blue Hill has hired a new town administrator, filling the position for the third time in the past four years.
The town’s new top staffer will be Julie Atwell, who has held the same post in Jackson, New Hampshire, for several years, according to Ellen Best, chair of the Blue Hill Select Board.
Jackson, which lies directly southeast of Mount Washington and is roughly a half-hour drive from Fryeburg, Maine, in 2021 had a population of slightly more than 1,000 residents, according to that town’s 2022 annual report. Blue Hill’s population in 2020 was roughly 2,800 residents.
“We are awaiting her arrival,” Best said Tuesday, adding she could not recall what Atwell’s starting salary for the town will be.
Atwell said Tuesday that her first day in Blue Hill will be Sept. 29. She said the job opening caught her attention because she often travels to the coast with her husband and two children on weekends to enjoy the shore.
“When this job presented itself, we thought this would be an ideal situation,” Atwell said.
Atwell will become the third person to hold the position of town administrator in Blue Hill since the position was created in 2019. Prior to that, the Select Board directly supervised town employees.
Blue Hill’s first town administrator, Shawna Ambrose, was hired in the fall of 2019 but resigned in early 2022 to spend more time with her family. Her successor, Nicholas Nadeau, held the post for about a year, from August 2022 until last month, when he resigned for personal reasons.
