MADAWASKA – The Madawaska Board of Selectmen on Tuesday night elected Fred Ventresco, the present town manager at Milbridge, as Madawaska’s new town manager.

Ventresco, 40, who has been town manager at Milbridge for 21/2 years, is expected to start work at Madawaska July 6. Before his work at Milbridge, Ventresco worked in economic development at Gardiner and at Bangor.

Ventresco received a degree in public administration from the University of Maine in Orono in 2000.

“I thought the area was beautiful, and that Madawaska is a nice town,” he said Thursday afternoon in a telephone interview. “I was only in town one night, but the people I met were nice, and the [town] council seemed professional.

“The first thing I would want to do is step back and get the concerns of the area, get to understand the ethic of the area and get a feel which is individual for each town,” he said. “I intend, at first, to listen more than anything else to see what people are looking for.”

According to Vern Doucette, chairman of the Madawaska Board of Selectmen, Ventresco will be paid $56,000 a year for the position. Fringe benefits will include medical insurance coverage.

Ventresco was one of eight people who applied for the position that becomes open July 1. Arthur Faucher, Madawaska’s town manager for the past 17 years, will be done working on June 30.

The field of eight applicants was narrowed to four by a committee named by the Board of Selectmen. Those four were interviewed by the selectmen.

Doucette said Ventresco would start on a six-month probationary period.