‘Rookie’ manager lauded in Houlton

HOULTON – Town Manager Doug Hazlett admits that the image “rookie” is not quite what he sees when he looks in a mirror.

To Hazlett, 57, a rookie is usually someone younger, perhaps sporting a baseball cap and wielding a bat or throwing a ball.

But the Maine Town and City Management Association sees otherwise.

During the association’s annual meeting late last month, it presented Hazlett with its Rookie Town Manager of the Year award.

It recognizes a manager who has been on the job for up to five years and has done a particularly good job in his or her community.

Hazlett became Houlton’s town manager last March.

Although he has now jokingly labeled himself the “oldest rookie,” Hazlett said Friday that management is nothing new to him.

He spent more than 30 years with the Hartford Financial Services Group, one of the largest investment and insurance companies in the United States, before moving to the area with his wife, Kim, in 2002.

When he took the helm in Houlton, however, it was the first time that he had been a town manager.

“There is nothing wrong with taking a chance at something new,” he said, sitting in his tidy office just a short walk away from downtown. “I feel supported here, and the town took a chance in hiring me, someone who had never been a town manager before.”

Since taking the job, Hazlett has worked with town officials to advance economic development and trim Houlton’s mill rate. He was instrumental in spearheading a series of symposiums to assist home-based business owners.

Hazlett said that receiving the prestigious award was even more meaningful to him because his fellow managers from across the state nominated him.

He cited the support of the council, in concert with that of the municipal staff, as key to his success.

“We have a strong, capable staff in this town that has a wealth of skill and accumulated knowledge,” he said. “This town would not run without them, and I couldn’t do what I do without them.”