The sign for the Phillips town office advertises an open position July 25. Phillips has been seeking a part-time office worker for more than two months. (Quentin Blais/Staff Writer)

The town of Andover does not have a manager or an administrator.

Instead, the town of around 800 residents is run by a three-person select board and a clerk. The work has always gotten done. But in recent years, town officials have said interest in positions on the board has declined and it’s growing increasingly difficult to carry out the weekly workload, whether its putting out bids to contractors and approving bills or signing warrants.

Unlike most other towns, whose boards meet every other week, Andover’s meets every Tuesday, a change that was made to make up for the lack of a manager to keep up with the weekly housekeeping items.

Across the state, small towns — most with small budgets — operate their daily responsibilities of tax collecting, voter and vehicle registration, record keeping and licensing with a shallow pool of elected officials and hired workers who are left to fill in the gaps to keep their offices running.

The lack of interest by potential workers isn’t about an actual lack of interest. Instead, the conditions in town offices have become so demanding that fewer and fewer people can manage the workload.

Few people are running to fill local offices now. From an aging workforce in rural towns, with no one to replace them, to elected officials facing the heat of public scorn online and in person, the downsides outweigh the benefits for many. Across the state, more than 25 communities have lost their top administrators over the last three years.

Justin Thacker served on the Andover Board of Selectmen for more than three years, stepping down in June for personal reasons. Nobody ran to fill his seat in the June 9 election. A special election is now planned for August to fill the third seat, with only one person filing paperwork to run for the job.

Brian Mills, the chair of the Andover Board of Selectmen, said that his town is not unique in its recruiting difficulties.

“Like a lot of towns in Maine, Andover has struggled to keep citizens involved in the running of their town,” Mills said.

‘NOT WORTH THE PAIN’ A view of South Main Street in Andover. The town of around 800 residents is run by a clerk and a three-person select board, which currently only has two people serving. (Rose Lincoln/Staff Writer)

Currently operating with just two members, with the third seat soon to be filled, the board is able to function, but things could get held up if one member is absent, or if there is a disagreement on an issue presented.

“If the two members don’t agree on motions made then no action is taken. We’ve been lucky that those boards worked well together and actually have taken action on some necessary needs for the town,” Mills said.

Select Board members in Andover are paid a yearly stipend of $4,000. That’s $75 a week after taxes. When Thacker was on the board, he said he could work upwards of 15 hours each week on top of his role as a pastor in Rumford. A fellow board member sometimes hit 20 hours. For outsiders, Thacker said the workload and pay are barriers to finding new individuals to run for the board.

“For the headache and for the stipend that we get, people say it’s just not worth the pain,” Thacker said. “We hear that often. You know, ‘it’s just not worth the pain.'”

In 2024, the board put the question of whether to hire a town manager up to a vote. The result was about 60% voting down the effort. This year, they explored a town administrator.

“The feedback was so negative, we didn’t even present it to the town,” Thacker said.

He said that the general consensus with voters in Andover was “why complicate things? This has always worked for us.” The average voter doesn’t see the long hours that board members work to keep towns running.

“This is just my opinion, but even though I’ve advocated for it, the citizens do not understand how much time the Select Board has to put in to keeping the town above water, administratively speaking,” Thacker said. “We’ve had selectmen that just simply quit because they were burned out.”

Although he is currently not serving on the board, Thacker hopes to run again in the future.

“I certainly care about the town that I live in and want to serve once again at some point down the road,” he said.

‘YOU HAVE TO DO IT’ A job posting hangs on a cork board July 25 inside the Phillips town office as Town Manager Maureen Haley works the counter in the background. (Quentin Blais/Staff Writer)

Andover is far from alone in having strained staff. Even in towns that have hired managers and administrative staff, the workload can be a lot.

In Phillips, a town similarly sized to Andover, the office has seen multiple positions consolidated into just a handful of jobs.

Town Manager Maureen Haley oversees an office of four employees, but along with her responsibilities as manager, she serves as the town’s tax collector, treasurer, motor vehicle agent, human resources, sexton and general assistance director — a collection of roles she has taken on since being hired in 2016.

Every few years, residents question whether the town should do away with the town manager position as a way to lower the town’s operating budget. But Haley said the move would have the opposite effect in a town like Phillips. Because without her position, the town would need to hire at least two workers in her place.

“I’m having trouble filling one position here, you know. How … do you get quality for less pay?” she said.

Haley said it’s not just the administrators who take on more work. The Phillips Select Board has assumed more responsibilities. Haley cited the board chair taking on E911, a tedious process that involves working with the state to identify home addresses within the town.

The town has struggled to fill a part-time deputy clerk position, a listing that has been up since early June. A challenge has been balancing the requirements for the position with the reality of the town budget, Haley said.

Staffing shortages are affecting towns statewide, explained Kate Dufour, director of advocacy and communications for the Maine Municipal Association.

“The workload is not only increasing in volume but in complexity as well,” Dufour said. “Municipalities are expected to implement state policy with very little technical or financial assistance. Municipal employees and volunteers are extremely important state partners and need to be treated as such.”

Some who have worked in town government for years are nearing retirement age, but are unsure who will fill their place.

Fewer young people are getting into public service careers. The University of Maine at Augusta unveiled an online public administration degree, and Dufour said the association hopes it will attract a new generation into the workforce.

Haley said that in the past, local schools would require students to attend at least one local government meeting so that they would understand how their communities operated. That program ended, but she said that it could be a way to get the next generation into town offices and onto boards.

In the meantime, town officials will have to continue providing vital services to their communities until the next generation steps up to take their place.

“If you don’t have somebody to do it, you have to do it,” Haley said. “It’s a machine that keeps moving.”