TOPSHAM — Town officials tapped a former assistant town manager from the other side of the Androscoggin River to fill their own assistant manager post.
The select board Thursday voted to hire Derek Scrapchansky, who spent a year and a half as the assistant town manager in Brunswick, resigning in May 2017.
“He comes highly recommended from everyone he’s worked with in the past on different projects when he was on the other side of the river,” said Town Manager Rich Roedner. “I think he will make a great addition to our team.”
Graduating from the University of Connecticut with a degree in economics, Scrapchansky went on to Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University to earn his MBA and the Air Force War College for national security and strategic studies.
Scrapchansky is a 25-year veteran of the Navy and retired as a commander. While serving, Scrapchansky flew P-3 Orions as well as the Broad Area Maritime Surveillance Unmanned Aerial Vehicle. Scrapchansky was once stationed at the Brunswick Naval Air Station and recently returned to the area from Virginia.
After Scrapchansky’s tenure as Brunswick’s assistant town manager ended, he was replaced by Ryan Leighton.
“I am very pleased with the selection,” Topsham Select Board Chairman David Douglass told Roedner on Thursday. “Particularly, something I was hoping to see was a very well-rounded person inside of government and outside of government, I think you did it.”
Roedner said the town fielded about 30 applications for the position, and that the field was slowly narrowed down to two candidates. Selectmen unanimously approved the selection. Scrapchansky will be Topsham’s first assistant manager since 2011, when the position was cut out of the budget.
Voters approved bringing the position back at May’s town meeting. Duties for the new assistant manager role include assisting the human resources, technology, facilities management and finance departments.
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