Baileyville official looks to return to hometown

BAILEYVILLE – Town Manager Jack Clukey would like to return home, and he said Thursday he would know next week whether he has been appointed to Dover-Foxcroft’s top municipal job.

The Dover-Foxcroft Town Council is expected to name Clukey town manager at a meeting later this month.

Clukey, who has been Baileyville manager for the past 10 years, also plans to formally hand in his resignation to the Town Council next week.

“At this point I’ve just informally told the council that I anticipate leaving the position at the end of February,” he said in a telephone interview Thursday.

Doug Jones, chairman of the Baileyville council, said, “He is one of the best town managers that we’ve had. I’m sorry to lose him … but he has a chance to go back to his hometown, and there is no way we could hold up anyone who wants to return home.”

Jones said the town budget would be completed by the time Clukey left and in time for the March town meeting.

During his tenure, Clukey has watched over a host of projects, including an effort to develop an industrial park on Route 9. Initial plans call for construction of a 10,000-square-foot building to accommodate 25 Border Patrol agents and their support staff.

Clukey also was involved in 1998 when a $1 billion natural gas pipeline was constructed through his community. Maritimes & Northeast Pipeline also built a compression station, which added income to the town coffers.

Clukey’s successor will have to deal with several issues that remain, including plans by a Massachusetts-based land trust to acquire a 312,000-acre conservation easement that includes about 8,000 acres of town land and part of the town’s water system.