Matthew Sturgis, the former town manager for Cape Elizabeth who was sworn in as Cumberland’s town manager in June, has glowing things to say about both municipalities: their commitment to “competently run” town services, their strong school systems, and their communities’ interest in preserving and promoting public open spaces.
When asked how the towns are different, he demurred. “It’d be like trying to say which is your favorite child.”

Sturgis
Sturgis became interested in municipal government as a real estate appraiser working with his father while in his 20s. He decided to parlay that experience into working in assessing for a municipality, eventually landing a job with the city of Auburn. Later he joined Cape Elizabeth as their assessor in 2000, where he worked for over two decades. Meanwhile, he also gained experience on the elected side. He was a council member for the town of Gray from 2008 to 2017, including a stint as council chair from 2011 to 2017. In 2017, he became Cape Elizabeth’s town manager.
“Life has a journey and it provides opportunities. You have to be smart enough and try to identify and recognize it when a really great opportunity shows up. And that was what we have here,” he said, speaking of his switch to Cumberland.
Over the past two months, Sturgis has thrown himself into pushing forward key priorities in Cumberland, including the construction of a roundabout at Route 100/Gray Road and Skillin and Blackstrap roads, a new comprehensive plan and more.
In an interview with the Northern Forecaster, the new town manager talked about what’s on his radar for the coming months.
New comp plan
Every 10 years, municipalities are supposed to update their comprehensive plan, the document that guides land use decisions and other planning and policy choices.
Cumberland did a wholesale comprehensive plan update in 2009, and then amended that plan in 2014, so the town is due for an update.
The town was waiting to kick off the comprehensive plan process until they made a key new hire, Sturgis said. Bridget Perry recently came on board as the town’s director of planning and sustainability, replacing outgoing Carla Nixon, who has held that role for nearly three decades.
Now that the new planner is here and can help guide the process, the next step is for the Town Council to make some decisions about how they want to structure the comprehensive plan update process. They will decide on issues such as the Comprehensive Planning Committee, its size, who should be on it, and the timeline for the project, said Sturgis.
The update process will include plenty of opportunities for community input, he said, and he had this message for the public: “(If) someone had an interest in wanting to serve on a comprehensive planning committee, then I’d say keep your eyes open for a request for applicants for that.”
Town revaluation
The town’s assessing department will begin a property revaluation “in the near term,” Sturgis said, to make sure properties in town reflect current market value. The goal is to implement the new values by April 2025. “John Brushwein, tax assessor, will begin his field work in the late summer/early fall,” Sturgis wrote in a follow-up email.
Some areas of town may have appreciated in value at a greater rate than other sections, he said, and the new assessment should reflect the changing market value and “rebalance the burden of property taxes.”
A revaluation means that the property tax rate in Cumberland will likely decrease. Broadly speaking, the tax rate is set by dividing the amount of money the town needs to raise to pay its bills by the town’s total value, according to Sturgis. If the denominator of the fraction increases, it creates a smaller fraction. That revaluation doesn’t mean the town is bringing in more money, though. “It’s revenue neutral,” he said.
Rusty Lantern
Sturgis is also hoping to help push a commercial development in West Cumberland over the finish line.
In August, the Planning Board is set to deliberate on final approval for a proposed Rusty Lantern market, gas station and bank branch at 181 Gray Road, Sturgis said. Some residents have objected to the project, arguing that it will hurt surrounding local businesses and that the market should not operate 24/7 as the developer, Cumberland Real Estate Group, intends.
The last time the project was before the Planning Board, in May, the applicant was awaiting permits from the Maine Department of Transportation and the Maine Department of Environmental Protection.
Route 100 roundabout
The town has long sought a solution to “dangerous” conditions at the intersection of Route 100/Gray Road and Skillin and Blackstrap, a crossing that saw 12 crashes between 2021 and 2023, according to the Maine Department of Transportation.
Maine U.S. Sen. Susan Collins recently announced that $9.6 million in federal funding she requested for the project cleared an important hurdle: passing the Senate Appropriations Committee. The funding must make it into the final appropriations package that is approved by the House and Senate, but Sturgis said his understanding is that the Senate Appropriations Committee was the biggest obstacle, and it is now likely the town will get the funding.
In addition to making the intersection safer, the roundabout ties with the town’s goal of promoting the commercial tax base.
“If you’re just on a straight run from point A to point Z, oftentimes you focus on the destination versus what you see in the middle. But if you slow down in the middle, you have the opportunity to say, ‘Oh, let’s take a look around here … this may be a good place to open my business,’” said Sturgis. He said often infrastructure improvements, like pedestrian safety improvements (the proposal includes sidewalks), spur investment in an area.
Sturgis said if all goes well, he thinks the town could have the project done by the spring or summer of 2026. He said there are no remaining approvals on the town side for the project. “Most of that is shovel ready,” he said.
Removing a blind spot
There is a blind spot close to the intersection of Range Road and Route 100 near J Brothers Variety Store that has caused some “close calls” at the intersection and for people pulling in and out of the store, Sturgis said.
The town has talked to the store owners to come up with a potential solution to improve traffic safety. The blind spot is caused by a hill that starts just before the store. Sturgis wants to ask the Town Council to shift money initially intended for a different project toward lowering the slope of the hill to make visibility on the road better. He said he hopes to bring the issue up with the council late next month.
Comments are not available on this story.
Send questions/comments to the editors.