Longtime Dover-Foxcroft town manager will step down at the start of the new year
DOVER-FOXCROFT — Following two decades in the position, Dover-Foxcroft Town Manager Jack Clukey will be stepping down in early January of 2025. Clukey publicly announced the forthcoming move during a selectboard meeting on Tuesday, Oct. 15 as the board accepted his resignation.
“I want to announce I have made the board aware that I plan to step down as town manager as of Jan. 5 of the coming year,” Clukey said at the end of the meeting after giving his regular town manager’s report. “I have some other career goals that I want to pursue and some other challenges I am going to take on in 2025.”
“So I just want to say publicly thank you for the opportunity to serve the community over the past 20 years,” he said. “Thank you for the support that the board has given me over the years and support from staff and from the community as a whole. All the projects that we worked on wouldn’t be possible without support from the community as a whole.”
OUTGOING TOWN MANAGER — Dover-Foxcroft Town Manager Jack Clukey, left pictured with 2023 Warren “Pete’ Myrick Award recipient Chris Maas, will be stepping down from the position during the first week of 2025. Clukey had been town manager for more than 20 years, and told the selectboard during an Oct. 15 meeting he will be pursuing other career goals and challenges.
“What I want to do is give this extended notice period so there’s some extra time to make sure all the projects we have going now can transition smoothly and I have no doubt that they will,” Clukey, who is a 1988 graduate of Foxcroft Academy, said.
“Again I just want to say thank you for this opportunity,” he said. “I’ve certainly appreciated the opportunity and the ability to spend the majority of my career here in Dover-Foxcroft which I am not sure was my original intent in 2004 to make it a 20-year timeline. I have enjoyed every minute of it and it has been very rewarding for me to do that both personally and professionally so thank you for having that opportunity.”
“Thank you for your service to the town over almost 21 full years now,” Select Chair Tom Lizotte said.
Lizotte also thanked Clukey for the near three months notice as the selectboard will begin a transition plan to find the next town manager. He said this would be a discussion in an executive session that evening as the board met with its attorney to discuss the rights and duties of the selectboard.
“The single most important duty that a selectboard has is to choose a town manager, that’s the only person who reports directly to the selectboard and the only person hired directly by the select board,” Lizotte said. “It’s a major task and we have the time to do that the correct way while still having a steady hand at the helm of town affairs so I appreciate that very much.”