MILLINOCKET – Town Council Chairman David Nelson will resign in late May as part of plans to take an out-of-state job.

Nelson, 44, e-mailed an announcement to the Town Council and Town Manager Eugene Conlogue about two hours before a council meeting at 4:30 p.m. Thursday. He said he plans to start in a fellowship and instructor’s position at the Medical College of Wisconsin in Milwaukee in June. Presuming council approval, he will not leave the council until its May 24 meeting, he said.

“I am sad. There is a lot of work that we have begun, but at the same time, I am taking what I have learned here and will apply it, especially in the use of substance abuse prevention and coalition building, and teaching it to other people,” Nelson said Thursday. “And for that, I am honored.

“I will truly miss the area and the people that live here,” he added.

Nelson, director of community relations at Millinocket Regional Hospital, has been a councilor for four years and was named chairman in November 2005, succeeding John Davis. He quickly earned residents’ respect for restoring to council meetings a sense of order that some residents felt was lacking.

The resignation announcement comes just as the council begins one of its most ambitious efforts in years – an active role in restoring a town economy buffeted by more than 20 years of bad news, including unemployment at twice the state average, layoffs of about 3,800 millworkers, and the town’s population shrinking from about 8,000 residents to about 5,200.

Nelson said he hopes to stay on until May to help guide the town through the shaping of its economic plan and its next budget.