Maylor excited for North Andover position

SWAMPSCOTT – Town Administrator Andrew Maylor said he is looking forward to the challenges of his new position as Town Manager of North Andover, but that he also had some challenging projects in Swampscott to finish before leaving around Christmas.”I am very excited,” Maylor said Tuesday. “But my primary goal (for Swampscott) is continuing as if nothing has changed. We will operate the same for the 60 days I’m here and on the 61st day? the interesting thing is that all those things that seemed far away are actually closer than they appeared – it’s like the warning on car mirrors.”The North Andover Board of Selectmen voted unanimously on Monday night to select Maylor to become their town’s new town manager.Maylor said the selectmen took a recess – his daughter, he noted, was watching the meeting online – to call him and offer him the job, and he accepted.He hopes to finalize his new contract by this weekend and then will submit a letter of resignation to the selectmen and fulfill his 60-day notice.He said he will not withdraw his application for the Winchester Town Manager position until after the North Andover contract is finalized.In addition to starting the annual budget Nov. 9 in Swampscott, he said that he has three major capital projects that he would like to see addressed.He said that he would like to begin a project to improve Blocksidge Field at Phillips Park by adding lights for night games, new stands and a new artificial turf field. Fundraising for the project has been going on for years, but there’s no formal approval of any renovation project.He also would like to sign contracts to begin building the new police station and wants the town to clear and prepare the site of a new playground at Jackson Park.Meanwhile, Swampscott will begin the search process for a new town administrator.Town Moderator Joe Markarian said the Town Charter calls for a five-member committee to seek and screen applications for the position. The moderator will appoint two Town Meeting members to the committee and the board of selectmen, the finance committee and the school committee will each appoint a person – who does not have to be a member of the respective boards – to the committee. The committee must meet within 30 days of its appointment to devise a plan to advertise the vacant position.The committee will then evaluate the candidates and then recommend to selectmen that they choose among three to five finalists for the position.The Town Charter specifies that the recommendations must be made within 90 days of the committee’s first meeting, and then selectmen have 30 days to interview the candidates and make a decision.Maylor earned $133,262 last year.Maylor said that the screening committee will ultimately decide what qualities it wants in a Town Administrator, but said that he felt the most important quality for a candidate to demonstrate would be that he or she cares about the work.