MATTAWAMKEAG – Town Administrator Joseph E. Clark will get a significant bump up in salary at his new position with a private firm in Rockport.

Clark will go to work in a managerial position for Midcoast Solid Waste Corp. on May 16, he said. His last day is today.

Clark leaves his position amid some strife. That includes a town clerk who has been suspended with pay indefinitely and is being investigated by the Penobscot County District Attorney’s Office in Bangor after money was found missing from the town’s accounts, and recent problems with the Fire Department’s command structure which saw Fire Chief Robert Powers briefly resign in December.

“Me leaving has nothing to do with that,” Clark said Monday, “even with the fire chief circumstance, which was back in November. I applied [at Midcoast] back in January, and they just informed me that I was accepted into the position.”

He would not say how much more money he would be making, but his new salary will be significantly greater than the $25,500 he received as the town’s administrator, he said.

John Whitehouse, chairman of the Board of Selectmen, expressed mixed feelings about Clark’s leaving.

“I never stood in the way of somebody trying to better himself, and that’s exactly what he’s doing,” Whitehouse said Tuesday.

Clark leaves at a difficult time, with the town budget to close for fiscal year 2005-06 next month, a town meeting to prepare for and the investigation ongoing, Whitehouse said.

“Even if he wasn’t gone, it would be hard because we’re getting ready to close the town books for the year,” Whitehouse said. “Whomever steps into his shoes is going to have a plateful.”

The board hopes to hire a replacement within the next two weeks, Whitehouse said. It will be seeking applicants until Friday and will discuss replacing Clark at its meeting on Monday night.

Town government can get by without an administrator for a week or two, Whitehouse said.

Clark leaves his position with some regrets. He had hoped to get the town more state or federal grant money for downtown improvements and wanted to create a Pine Tree Zone to help attract more businesses.

“I felt I had accomplished a little bit,” Clark said of his two years in Mattawamkeag. “We were able to make town government a little more customer-friendly, for one thing.”

The town administrator received a $3,500 raise last May from the town thanks to a Board of Selectmen vote. As part of the deal, Clark was paid 5 percent more for his health benefits and became the town health officer, taking the responsibility of dealing with health issues as they arose.

The biggest grant he helped the town get is a $180,000 Federal Emergency Management Agency grant that paid for all but 10 percent of the cost of a new firetruck. The truck arrived in April and cost the town only $19,400.