Since the unexpected passing of Machias Town Manager Bill Kitchen on September 9, town officials have been making a number of decisions to keep the town moving forward. The select board recognizes the importance of maintaining day-to-day operations while preserving the vision Kitchen had for the community.
      At the memorial held for Kitchen, select board member Ben Edwards said, "Bill's enthusiasm, his creative way of seeing things, his kindness, it has left an indelible impression that I believe will endure." That vision includes venerating "our traditions, but don't be imprisoned by them," says Edwards. "The old ways are important but shouldn't be mistaken as perfect. That we should not be restricted by our perceived limitations. That we can dream and do big things, all while honoring our past. That is how I understood Bill's way of thinking and his vision for our community."
      Kitchen brought a unique approach to the position of town manager, wearing a myriad of hats. The official and public responsibilities were growing, and officials knew a change needed to be made. A new operations manager position has now been created to serve with the town manager. "The addition of the operations manager role was a decision the board made with Bill Kitchen long before he passed," says Edwards. "The demands of the town manager position were clearly in excess of one person -- especially if we want to continue to have a town manager that can be out in the community and advocating on behalf of the community and not just buried in administrative tasks at the town office."
      To assist the town, Christina Therrien has stepped back into her former role on a temporary basis. Therrien served Machias as town manager over two separate terms: October 2001 to April 2006 and again from October 2015 to April 2021. She currently is the finance director for the city of Waterville.
      "I was proud to serve Machias, it is such a beautiful place with great people, so this was an easy decision to assist the town," says Therrien. The biggest challenge, she notes, will be the learning curve for new personnel. "There are so many ongoing projects and moving pieces and agencies to work with," she says. "Yet with all of this activity there are many opportunities for growth. There has always been a great potential for Machias to prosper and improve the quality of life for the citizens. It just takes hard work, dedication and follow through."

Interim operations manager named
     Edwards says, "I don't believe this is a process that should be rushed. It is too important, too consequential to the future of our community. That said, we have posted both positions, and we have applicants. We will begin the review process immediately. But it will take whatever time it needs to take."
      Serving as interim operations manager is Sarah Craighead Dedmon. "It was important for me to get more involved only because it was irresistible to me -- I love it!" says Dedmon. "It's the same reason I wanted to serve on the select board in Machiasport -- if the public saw all of the heart, soul, perseverance and personal dedication that underpins even mundane town projects like plowing our roads or making sure the public can vote on Election Day, they'd stop watching television and just watch their local town office."
      "During the town budget process earlier this year, Bill Kitchen mentioned that the board was contemplating creating an operations position, and I thought then that working as part of the Machias town office team sounded fun," says Dedmon.
      Dedmon was recently elected to the select board in Machiasport and currently serves on the board of Porter Memorial Library and the University of Maine at Machias Board of Visitors. While her temporary role as operations manager is to support the needs of all the town departments, Dedmon is planning to apply for the permanent position of Machias town manager.
      "Seeing the positive impact of Bill's efforts on exciting projects like the airport and relatively mundane things like road repairs plus his work in growing local economic development, I think the board crafted this operations position to free the town manager up to move even more in that direction," says Dedmon. "Working with the people who are converting intricate government regulations into the services we take for granted every day is endlessly impressive. The spirit of service in our region is incredible."

Challenges moving forward
      Edwards says there are a number of challenges ahead. The first and foremost is to fill both manger roles. From there the town will focus on a number of initiatives such as the issue of the rising sea level.
      "What we are calling our Upper Machias Bay Project is an infrastructure project the likes of which I have not seen in this area before," says Edwards. "It pulls together a vast array of individual projects including Middle River marsh, our wastewater and stormwater systems, the dike, the old town landfill, our current downtown flooding problems and many more."
      Edwards notes the project's direct impact on not only Machias but on Marshfield via the Middle River marsh, the shellfish industry of Machiasport and so much more. "I am very excited about the opportunity this project presents and the potentially wide-ranging environmental and economic consequences of its execution," says Edwards.
      Another issue Edwards views as critical is the state of the economic drivers in the area: lobsters, shellfish, blueberries and forestry products. "These industries are all threatened, they are all largely outside of our control, and we sit predominately at the very bottom of the value chain of each of them," says Edwards. "Tourism fills a piece and is growing, but I don't like the idea of being dependent on tourism as a community. I think we need to find new ways of bringing substantial outside revenue into Machias."
      Edwards says, "There is always opportunity in crisis, and I am beyond proud of how our community has come together to support each other during this difficult time -- from our past town manager stepping back in on a part-time basis to help us, to the admin staff and other departments in the town stepping up, to the other communities that have reached out to offer help. It has not been easy, but I think we have all learned a tremendous amount in the last couple months, and I know we will be a much stronger, better educated, more unified board moving forward."