Bethel
Greg Maggard, who has worked in Buena Vista, Colo., for the past two years, previously worked as public works director in Callahan, Colo., and as town administrator in Shattuck, Oklahoma.
The Selectboard made his appointment official last Monday and said Maggard will start on June 5 at a base salary of $75,000.
Bethel Selectboard Chairman Carl Russell said he and his colleagues believe Maggard’s management experience gives him both “exceptional project-level knowledge” and the needed fiduciary skills.
“We were looking for someone who would break the mold of the typical upper-level management professional, who could help us to improve efficient delivery of services, increase professional development and team-building with staff, and to provide customer service and responsiveness to the community at large,” Russell said via email. “Greg exemplified these goals.”
In a phone interview last week, Maggard said he met a couple of weeks ago with several residents at the Cockadoodle Pizza Cafe in downtown Bethel and “kind of get the vibe that there is a lot of activity, people wanting to make some changes.”
Maggard, who has a bachelor’s degree in public management from Colorado State University, said people in Bethel want to “see something happen to keep people there and keep the next generation of people in town.”
“They understand if you are not moving forward, you are moving backward, and they want to see something more for that town,” he said.
Maggard said he was also attracted to the job because his wife, Kristi (Kenyon) Maggard, grew up in Monkton, Vt., and the family is looking forward to moving back to her home state and its sense of community. They have two children, a 21-year-old daughter and a 12-year-old son.
Buena Vista is a mountain town in the Upper Arkansas River Valley, near the Collegiate Peaks, and the motto on the town’s Chamber of Commerce website reads “8,000 feet above average.”
It has a population of about 2,800 and has grown by about 25 percent since 2000, according to Census figures. Bethel has a population of just under 2,000.
Maggard said the growth, and housing crunch in Buena Vista, has given him experience with “monitoring growth and doing it responsibly.”
Maggard was hired after a Vermont League of Cities and Towns search process offered a choice of 36 candidates. A committee of 10 Bethel residents and Selectboard members conducted three rounds of interviews and chose Maggard as one of two finalists, from which the Selectboard made the final pick, according to a news release from the board.
He will replace Town Manager Keith Arlund, who is retiring. Arlund came to Bethel in 2014, replacing longtime Bethel Town Manager Delbert Cloud.
News staff writer John P. Gregg can be reached at jgregg@vnews.com.