NORTH YARMOUTH — Citing scheduling conflicts that could arise from her new job, Select Board member Anne Graham on Oct. 2 announced her resignation.
The board was due Tuesday to accept Graham’s letter of resignation, which she submitted to Chairman Bill Whitten, announcing that she was stepping down immediately.
“I have been honored to serve the community of North Yarmouth at the local and state level,” said Graham, a former state House representative. “It is with a heavy heart that I leave the board, but due to recent circumstances, I find that I will be unable to continue to serve.”
Graham
She said in an interview Oct. 9 that she was resigning “for personal reasons.”
Coordinating the Nov. 2 “Celebration of Community” to be held Nov. 2 at the newly-completed Wescustogo Hall & Community Center, Graham said she had hoped the town would hire her to be its director.
The hiring committee instead chose Lisa Thompson of South Portland from a pool of 20 applicants; she will start on Oct. 21. Thompson has “an extensive background as a director of parks and recreation,” the job she now fills for the town of Wiscasset, Town Manager Rosemary Roy said Oct. 9.
Graham said she needed a full-time job since she hasn’t worked since last December. Her seasonal staff position at L.L. Bean will prevent her from continuing to serve on the Select Board, she said, because “the hours will be such that it will conflict with being on the board.”
“I was disappointed” not to be hired to run the community center, Graham said. Had she gotten the job, she still would have had to resign from the board, she added.
Still, Graham is “super enthused” about opening the new center, calling it “a really bright light for our community.”
Graham spent 2004-2010 on the Select Board before serving four years in Augusta. She was elected to the Select Board again in 2016, and re-elected in June.
A former nurse practitioner, part of the adjunct faculty at St. Joseph’s College, Graham also started the North Yarmouth Economic Development and Sustainability Committee, represented North Yarmouth on a school consolidation committee, and headed Foundation 51, the independent educational foundation for Cumberland and North Yarmouth schools. She also has served on the Governor’s Advisory Council on Health Systems Development.
During her time with the Select Board, the panel has “accomplished an enormous amount, and I’m hoping that will continue,” Graham said.
It is too late to put a replacement on the Nov. 5 ballot, Roy said. The board has 60 days from the date of Graham’s letter of resignation to call a special election. Because the state is holding a primary election on March 3, 2020, the special election could be held that day, said Roy. Regular board members receive an annual stipend of $1,250 and the chairperson earns $1,500.
Graham said she hopes residents “will see the positive growth, the positive work of the board, of our town, of opening Wescustogo,” and someone will step up to take her place on the panel. Particularly someone with a young family, she added: “it’s such a worthwhile thing to do.”
Graham has “done a great deal for the town,” Whitten said Monday. “It’s unfortunate that she’s decided to step down after just being elected, but we all have our paths in life, and have to make our decisions when we make them. … She has to do what’s right for her.”
Disappointed by Graham’s departure, Roy said, “she’ll be missed. Her expertise … and her contributions have been very important. She’s been a pleasure to work with.”
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