Penobscot County official resigns EMA director, roads and mapping manager moves to private sector

BANGOR – Penobscot County’s roads and mapping manager and Emergency Management Agency director for the past two years is moving on.

Bert Ingraham of Hermon submitted his resignation from the two positions and gave two weeks’ notice to the county commissioners last week. He is scheduled to work through the end of this week, Chairman Peter Baldacci confirmed during the commissioners’ weekly meeting Tuesday.

Ingraham, who holds a diploma in architecture and civil engineering from Central Maine Technical College and whose experience ranges from enhanced 911 planning and hazardous materials response to surveying engineering, has accepted a job in the private sector.

“I wasn’t out looking for it, it came to me,” Ingraham said Tuesday of the job offer. He declined to provide specifics but said his new job offered career advancement opportunities and better pay than his positions with the county, which paid less than $37,000 a year combined for both positions.

Ingraham said he leaves the county posts with mixed emotions. While eager to enter the next chapter of his career, he said, he will miss the people he worked with.

The commissioners have not yet firmed plans for hiring a successor.

During their meeting Tuesday, the commissioners met in executive session with the county’s part-time road consultant, Don Madden of Old Town, presumably to discuss his picking up some of Ingraham’s duties.

A retired Department of Transportation employee, Madden served as interim roads and mapping manager after then-roads and mapping manager Stephen Watson resigned. Also at that time, Barbara Cox served as interim EMA director.

Ingraham was hired in September 2000 from a field of nine applicants, about half of whom were interviewed by the commissioners.

Before joining the county staff, Ingraham worked for Coastal Environmental Corp., a Hermon-based firm specializing in environmental remediation. He also served as an engineering technician for the city of Brewer for 10 years. Before that, he was employed by HCI Craftsman, a construction company in Portland.