Searsport won’t renew contract of manager

SEARSPORT – Selectmen voted Tuesday night to notify Town Manager Jerry Storey that they would not renew his contract. Storey will leave his position on June 30, he said Friday.

The vote came after an executive session with Storey. Selectmen did not comment on the decision before or after the vote.

The manager’s contract required selectmen to give him 30 days’ notice that they would not be renewing. Selectmen Granville Gross, Bruce Mills and Carol Hersom voted to not renew Storey’s contract, and Selectman Joe Perry voted against the move.

Storey was hired in September 1997. He said he had been unable to enter into a long-term contract with selectmen over the years, agreeing to four separate extensions of as little as six months and no longer than a year.

Storey, 64, said Friday he had offered to retire on Dec. 31, but selectmen refused to go along with the deal. Efforts to contact selectmen were unsuccessful Friday.

“I really felt that it was in everybody’s interest to extend [the contract] to December 31,” he said. Part of Storey’s offer was to retire at the end of the year, and not take two months’ severance pay provided for in the contract.

With the vote, Storey will collect two-months severance pay, he said. He is paid $38,000 a year.

The move came as a surprise, the manager said, especially “after the wonderful town meeting we had” earlier this month.