AUBURN — After 10 months of pulling double duty, Clarice Proctor is finally getting a break.
The Androscoggin County Commission on Wednesday unanimously named Proctor the county administrator, cutting her duties by half.
Clarice Proctor
In addition to her full-time role as county treasurer/finance director, Proctor served as the interim county administrator. She can drop her former treasury role.
Commissioners praised Proctor’s resilience for the past 10 months.
“It should be noted that Clarice did two full-time jobs,” Commissioner Garrett Mason of Lisbon said. “That’s a lot of work and she did it all with a smile.”
Hired as the county treasurer/finance director in 2018, Proctor was previously the finance director for Sagadahoc County. She also has worked for area nonprofit organizations and agencies for more than 25 years.
She succeeds Lary Post, the first administrator, who held the job for nearly seven years.
According to the County Charter, the commissioners will vote on a new treasurer.
In other business, the board approved spending $74,184 from its allotment of American Rescue Plan to purchase and install a control board for the emergency generator. According to Facility Director David Cote, the 30-year-old generator recently failed to stay running. Caterpillar Milton was able to find parts to get it back online, but said parts for the control board are no longer manufactured.
The $74,184 will cover the new control board plus a manual transfer switch if the county ever needs to use an emergency generator from the National Guard or other entity.
Commissioners also authorized spending $40,000 to purchase a 2016 Chevrolet Silverado pickup truck for plowing. The bid was $36,500. The truck has 94,000 miles on the odometer. A mechanic has checked out the truck and saw no issues. The price includes an 8½-foot stainless steel V-blade plow.
The remaining $3,500 will be used for accessories, such as a rack, bed liner, undercoating and a strobe light.
Denise Scammon, marketing and development director of the Franco Center in Lewiston, asked the board to support the group’s $500,000 request for some of the county’s federal pandemic relief money. She said the group has raised $700,000 for its major renovation project and spent about $355,000 of it. She added that the group pays for using the parking lot at the adjacent former Continental Mill, including plowing, sanding and lighting.
Betsy Sawyer-Mantor, president and CEO of SeniorsPlus, also spoke to the board about the agency’s $500,000 request to help build a new facility for its Meals on Wheels program on Mollison Way in Lewiston.
A board member of Maine MILL made another plea to the commissioners, after they denied the request at their last meeting.
The board took no action on the requests, wanting more info from the national accounting firm Berry Dunn, which is assisting the county on compliance issues with federal relief money.
The board accepted a $76,570 grant from the State and Community Energy Program.
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