Simko returning as town manager
By Mike Lange
Staff Writer
GREENVILLE — The Greenville Board of Selectmen voted Thursday night to hire John Simko as the new town manager, returning him to a position he held from 2000 to 2010. Simko, who is currently Greenville’s fire chief, will succeed Gary Lamb, who departed after less than two years for a town manager’s job in Waterboro.
Observer file photo
NEW (BUT NOT BRAND NEW) TOWN MANAGER — Once again John Simko, pictured during his tenure as fire chief, will be Greenville’s Town Manager. Simko previously held the position from 2000 to 2010 before becoming director of business development for Pepin Associates. He will start on Sept. 3, succeeding Gary Lamb who left to become town manager of Waterboro in York County.
“I appreciate the opportunity to serve again. Greenville has been my home and I’ve always wanted to stay here,” Simko said Friday.
Simko was director of business development for Pepin Associates until the company scaled back its operation earlier this year, partially due to the federal government’s sequestration. The Greenville firm designs and fabricates materials and structures for composite airframe components and other applications.
Simko, 43, is a graduate of Foxcroft Academy and Bowdoin College and served as Sangerville’s town manager before taking the position in Greenville. He is also an intermediate level emergency medical technician at C.A. Dean Hospital.
Because of his commitments with the ambulance service, Simko said he won’t be able to start his town manager’s position until Sept. 3. “I’m looking forward to sitting down with all the town employees to find ways to make town government work better, and make it happen,” Simko said. “I’ve also got some ideas about economic development that I’ll be sharing with the selectmen and Economic Development Committee in the near future.
Simko said that he will remain a firefighter, although he’ll step down as chief. “The members select their leaders, so I’m sure that will be discussed very soon,” he said. Simko will mark his 20th year as a firefighter in 2014 with combined service with the Dover-Foxcroft, Sangerville and Greenville departments.
Jack Hart, who has been serving as Greenville’s interim town manager since Lamb left a few weeks ago, will assume new duties as a half-time code enforcement officer and half-time assistant town manager. Hart has been employed by the town of Greenville in various capacities since 2005.