Edward “Joe” Roach

RANGELEY — The Buckfield town manager will be heading north to lead Rangeley into the future.

Selectmen hired Edward “Joe” Roach of Peru as town manager last week. He has a three-year contract with a starting annual salary of $80,000 with benefits, interim Town Manager Traci Pitt-Lavoie said. He will start Aug. 24.

Roach was one of about five people who were interviewed for the position after Town Manager John Madigan left.

Roach is a familiar face to Rangeley residents. He served as director of public services, which includes the highway, sewer and parks and recreation departments, from September 2015 to February 2018 when he left Rangeley to become town manager in Buckfield.

Prior to that, he worked full-time as road commissioner for Peru from spring 2008 to fall 2015, Roach wrote in an email.

“I was on the Planning Board in Peru for a few years beginning in 2006 or so,” he said.

He studied public administration at the University of Maine in Orono and earned a master’s degree in public administration in 2011.

Roach lives in Peru with his family and dabbles in hobby farming.

“We’re growing garlic for the first time this year,” he said.

His last day in Buckfield is Aug. 21.