WESTBROOK – Keith Luke has stepped down as Westbrook’s director of economic and community development. His last day on the job, which he’s held for 31?2 years, was Dec. 31.

Luke said this week that, with resolution of some high-profile issues, including the dispute between Pike Industries and Idexx Laboratories, as well as the problems involving a former strip club, the timing was right.

“Everything has come to a logical conclusion,” he said. “It seems like a good time for me to move on.”

Mayor Colleen Hilton has made it a hallmark of her administration to consolidate duties in order to trim a tightening budget, but this week she said that she will not be eliminating Luke’s position or folding his responsibilities into another existing post.

“It’s a priority for me,” she said.

Luke’s salary was $76,169.

City Administrator Jerre Bryant said the city announced Luke’s departure internally this week, and will probably begin advertising for a new director next week. Bryant said the process will take about two months. In the meantime, he said, there will be no interim director, so other city officials will have to take on some of Luke’s tasks until a successor is found, Bryant said.

“We need to continue to have strong emphasis on maintaining and expanding existing business, and attracting new business,” Bryant said.

Hilton did say she would be planning to alter the job description slightly before advertising. When asked what she had in mind, Hilton declined to comment, only saying, “I will be making some minor changes.”

“I appreciate all the work that Keith has done for us,” Hilton said.

During his tenure, the Dana Warp Mill got a new owner and funds were obtained to help clean up the former Maine Rubber plant on Main Street. Luke said he was glad to be able to help get a $125,000 grant for the city to put toward the demolition of the plant, located on the west end of Main Street near the Gorham line.

Negotiations to develop the property with the Elowitch family, which owns the property, had fallen through several times in recent years, but officials have said that the grant has breathed new life into the property’s development.

“That’s close to coming to fruition,” Luke said.

City Councilor John O’Hara, who also sits on the Westbrook Environmental Improvement Corp., a quasi-governmental agency connected to economic development in the city, called projects Luke has been involved with “pace-setters for the next century.”

O’Hara also lauded Luke’s work in securing state and federal grant money for various city projects.

“It’s extremely critical that we secure all the funding that we can from external agencies,” he said. “Keith did an excellent job at that.”

Luke said he has helped secure nearly $1 million in grants for the city over the years, and a part of that came from the Cumberland County Community Development Block Grant Program, which Luke helped get the city into.

“The city had shot participation in that down years ago, and we brought that back up,” Luke said.

O’Hara noted that a good economic development director also works to retain businesses that already exist in town, and Luke kept his eye on them, too.

“The people that are here now are your bread and butter,” O’Hara said. “Keith Luke worked tremendously and effectively with the businesses that are here now.”

A native of East Boothbay, Luke, 45, graduated with a degree in political science from the University of Southern Maine in 1990. He worked for more than10 years as the development director at the Maine International Trade Center before moving on to a position as economic development director, first in Topsham, then in Windham before, coming to Westbrook in 2008.

Luke said he is looking at job opportunities in economic development, commercial real estate or commercial development.

Keith Luke