Freeport Town Planner Caroline Pelletier will serve as interim town manager while the town conducts a nationwide search to replace Peter Joseph, who recently resigned to take a job in York. 

“We’re asking a team of people to step up and do some of the duties that Peter has done jointly,” Town Councilor Dan Piltch said a council meeting Tuesday. Pelletier “will be ably assisted,” he said, by Finance Director Jessica Maloy and Assistant Town Manager Judith Hawley.

The town will hire a firm to assist with its manager search and once that happens, “we’ll have a better idea of the timeline” for filling the position permanently, he said.

He said he expects the search for a new town manager to take a few months. 

Joseph resigned after 10 years as Freeport’s manager to take the town manager’s job in York. Before Freeport, he was town manager in Lincoln, New Hampshire.

“The only reason I’d consider leaving is because I have to move,” Joseph told The Forecaster. “It’s completely tied to another job offer I’ll be taking.”

He said Freeport is “a great town.”

“I’m sad to be leaving. I’ve made a lot of relationships here,” Joseph said. “Residents and elected officials are really involved in what goes on.”

“The town is in a really good position to attract my replacement,” he added. “The staff is stable and fantastic and can definitely handle any interim period.”