AUGUSTA — Gov. Paul LePage is heading for Jamaica on Saturday for a week-long vacation, his office confirmed Tuesday.

It will be the first vacation LePage has taken since he became governor Jan. 5.

“With constituent hours (on Saturdays) he has been working six days a week with no time off since he started,” said press secretary Adrienne Bennett.

LePage has made the trip with family members each March or April, she said.

LePage will be traveling with his wife, Ann, but his daughter Lauren, who works in the governor’s office, will not be going this year, Bennett said. Neither will Devon Raymond Jr., a Jamaica-born man whom the LePages cared for while he attended high school in Maine. LePage refers to Raymond as his son, although he has not been formally adopted. Whether any of LePage’s other children will travel with him wasn’t clear.

The governor’s office declined to say where in Jamaica the LePages plan to visit.

No staff will be traveling with the governor. The administration has contacted local authorities in Jamaica and made security arrangements with them, Bennett said.

LePage will be in contact with his staff and will be available to make decisions as needed, she said.

“It’s important for him to be with his family,” Bennett said.

Dan Demeritt, LePage’s communications director, said LePage would sign any legislation passed in his absence upon his return.

 

MaineToday Media State House Writer Susan Cover can be contacted at 620-7015 or at: scover@mainetoday.com