WOOLWICH — Woolwich selectmen are reviewing more than 20 applications as they search for someone to help lead the town after Town Administrator Katie Johnston resigned at the end of December.

“We had over 20 applicants,” said Selectman Jason Shaw. “So the select board is reviewing them and going through them. We actually have started interviews.”

“We were quite pleased that there was quite a selection,” he added. “There’s quite a bit of interest.”

According to Shaw, Johnston took a position in finance in Portland.

The town office has seen a lot of turnover since the retirement of longtime Town Administrator Lynette Eastman and Town Clerk Janice Bradford in 2017. That August, then-Tax Collector Suzette Cloutier was named town administrator and Freeport Deputy Town Clerk Mary Howe was named town clerk.

Neither of them would hold the position for long. Howe resigned from the town clerk position just a few months later and has since taken a position in Bath, where she is the acting city clerk. Chelsea Lane was hired as the Woolwich town clerk shortly thereafter.

Clautier resigned from the town administrator in December 2017, and was replaced by Johnston, who had been hired as the tax collector and deputy town clerk for the town in the summer of 2017.

Shaw said he was optimistic that they would have a replacement hired in the next couple weeks. In the meantime, Johnston is working part-time on evenings and weekends to help in the interim, said Shaw.

nstrout@timesrecord.com