Loretta Powers File photo

BETHEL — Selectmen are advertising for a town manager to succeed Loretta Powers who stepped down July 9 to return as Newry’s administrator, a position she held from 1998 to 2015.

“She left to be closer to home,” interim Town Manager Scott Sumner said.

Sumner, Bethel’s public works director, said he is not a candidate for the position.

She was named deputy town clerk in Bethel in 2017 and succeeded interim Town Manager David Holt on Dec. 31, 2018. She and her husband moved to Florida, returning after a year and a half.

“We came home to be near family,” she said.

Her starting salary in Newry is $73,000.

In a recent interview, Powers said her biggest challenges in Bethel were the Wastewater Treatment Plant and the airport budgets, which “have to fund themselves.”

“I learned a lot,” she said.

Powers said she will miss the daily morning meeting with her colleagues in the town hall. “It was always fun and a good morale booster.”

When she was hired in Bethel, Powers said, “I don’t have any dreams of big changes, but keep people happy and keep the town happy, and doing the best I can do for them.”

She feels she fulfilled that quest.

A posting on the Bethel website says selectmen are seeking an individual to oversee 15 full-time employees and over 100 volunteer and part-time employees. The annual municipal budget is $4.2 million, excluding schools, the Wastewater Treatment Plant, the Oxford County assessment, and the Bethel Regional Airport.