By Scott Mitchell Johnson
Staff Writer
FORT FAIRFIELD, Maine — Michael Bosse, Fort Fairfield’s new town manager, said things have been going well in the two weeks since he’s been in the position. “The Town Council is very supportive of this process, and they’ve been very supportive of me and very patient with me,” he said. “As I ratchet up and take on more things, it seems like it’s going to go well. I’m feeling good about it.”
Bosse, 56, replaces Dan Foster who retired in December. His first day as town manager was Jan. 2.
“Things have been going well,” said Bosse, who had previously worked under Foster as the town’s economic and marketing director, as well as the executive director of the chamber of commerce. “After we made the announcement about six months ago that I would be Dan’s replacement, I was a little bit more intimately involved with the budget and various other items. My responsibilities increased the whole time during that six months, and the last two months things really ratcheted up where I was approving vacation time and signing the checks.
“I was involved with most of the major decisions. Ultimately Dan was still the town manager and still had the final say, but he always consulted with me and asked me my opinion. Sometimes we didn’t agree, and sometimes he made the decision that I probably wouldn’t have, but nonetheless I always saw his reasoning after,” Bosse said. “It was kind of interesting; it would almost be like a quiz. He’d ask, ‘How would you handle this?’ and I’d tell him. Maybe 95-98 percent of the time he and I were thinking alike, but there were a couple of percentages of the time he would say, ‘Well, did you think about this?’ and ‘Did you think about this?’ It was the type of mentoring you like to see and he did a really good job with it.”
Bosse said, as town manager, his goals include implementing the town’s investment strategy that was formulated in 2010.
“Upon my joining Fort Fairfield three-and-a-half years ago, the community had gone through a two-year process to establish the investment strategy and determine the direction the community wanted to go in,” he said. “As a result of that, the Quality of Place Council was formed and I’ve been working with that group since its inception. We’ve established a couple of programs — the HOMEBuyer Program and Fort Kids First — and my plan is to implement those and some of the other ideas that were outlined in the investment strategy.
“We’ll start working on the budget at the beginning of March,” said Bosse. “We’ll go through the process and eventually the budget will be voted on during the June council meeting.”
Because of the circumstances with the state revenue sharing, Bosse said, the position of economic and marketing director for the second half of the budget year was not included in the budget.
“If the revenue sharing is restored or if we can find space in the budget, since it is a very important role in the community,” he said, “we would be looking to refill that position. Hopefully we’ll be able to once again fill that position at some time in the future.”
Bosse, however, is doing much of the work as chamber director including helping plan and sell booth space for the upcoming Agri-Business Trade Fair.
Bosse and his wife, Peggy, are still residing in Caribou, but plan to move to Fort Fairfield once their house is sold.
“If we can sell our home,” he said, “we’ll definitely be moving to Fort Fairfield.”
This is Bosse’s first town managerial position, and he’s excited about the possibilities.
“I’m really happy that the Town Council has bestowed upon me this responsibility and I really appreciate the fact that they have the faith and the trust in me that I can fulfill this position,” he said, “and I certainly will do my best not to let them down.”
