Eastport manager may leave

Eastport’s city manager has been offered the top administrative post on Vinalhaven.

George “Bud” Finch, 52, said Tuesday he is considering the offer but hasn’t decided whether to accept.

Vinalhaven Selectwoman Barbara Davidson confirmed Tuesday that Finch has been offered the town manager’s job, which has drawn interest from some 40 applicants. The deadline for applying isn’t until Dec. 14.

“I love what I do for work,” he said in an interview. “I have a tremendous love for Eastport.”

And life on an island is not that different from living in Eastport, he said.

Vinalhaven is 15 miles off the coast of Rockland in Knox County and has about 1,300 year-round residents. Eastport, in eastern Washington County, has about 1,750 year-rounders. Both communities’ populations increase during the summer.

“He enjoyed the island,” Davidson said of Finch’s recent visit to Vinalhaven. “We enjoyed meeting him.”

Details, such as salary, have not been worked out, she said, but “whoever comes to Vinalhaven [as manager] will have a comfortable home.”

One of the perks of the job is living in the keeper’s dwelling at Brown’s Head Light.

Finch, who was born in Eastport and left after high school to work for Pratt & Whitney as a project engineer, said he was “always a big fan of lighthouses” and that he has friends on the island.

Before taking the Eastport post in 1995, Finch was a selectman in Wells and served as a volunteer firefighter there, as he does in Eastport. He ran unsuccessfully for a state Senate seat, and his management of the city sometimes has been the target of complaints by a group calling itself the Coalition for a Better Eastport.

Finch said he wants to give full attention to how a move would affect not only him, but other people in his life, he said.

Finch has three grown sons who attend the University of Maine.

Also, Finch said, he wants to be fair with Vinalhaven officials, pointing to the need for small towns to have continuity and commitment.

In Eastport, the city had nine managers in 15 years before Finch took the position.

Vinalhaven lost its most recent town manager – Greg McGinnis of North Carolina – after just eight months. Since then, Vinalhaven selectmen have appointed island resident Patricia Lundholm as interim town manager.

McGinnis succeeded Susan Lessard, who had been the island’s top administrator for seven years.

Finch expects to make his decision over the weekend.