Temporary Mount Desert worker tapped as full-time town clerk

MOUNT DESERT – The town employee who has been filling in as the town clerk has been hired officially to fill the post, according to a town official.

Joelle Nolan, who has been serving in the position temporarily since former Town Clerk Kim Parady left at the beginning of the year, was picked by selectmen this week to take the job permanently, Town Manager Michael MacDonald said Friday.

“She’s no longer temporary,” he said.

Nolan has served as Mount Desert’s deputy town clerk, deputy treasurer and tax collector, and registrar of voters for the past several years. She faces a six-month probationary period in her new position, after which she will be appointed on an annual basis, according to MacDonald.

In other personnel business, Finance Director Brent Hamor was appointed deputy code enforcement officer, the town manager said. Hamor served as the town’s CEO before becoming finance director and will act as a backup to CEO Kim Keene and deputy CEO John Brushwein in the event that neither are available, he said.

At their meeting this week, selectmen also discussed two proposals under consideration for voter approval at annual town meeting in March.

A public hearing on a proposal to have fluoride removed from the local water supply has yet to be scheduled, MacDonald said, while another proposal to have voters weigh in on the funding formula for Mount Desert Island High School has been put off indefinitely. Town officials have raised the issue of how much the town pays to send students to the high school with other Union 98 officials because they believe the funding formula is unfair to Mount Desert taxpayers.

MacDonald said that responding to Gov. John Baldacci’s proposal to consolidate school districts throughout Maine has become a higher priority for town officials than getting the high school funding formula changed.

“It will be back on the table,” he said. “They have to deal with the governor’s plan and what happens there first.”

An informational meeting for residents and officials of Union 98 member towns on the governor’s proposal has been scheduled for 7 p.m. Monday, Jan. 22, at the MDI High School library.