With the board’s great regret, Westport Island selectmen have received longtime road commissioner Garry Cromwell’s resignation, Board Chair and Second Selectman Jeff Tarbox said. Cromwell’s resignation letter, dated and received Sept. 12, was a surprise, Tarbox said in a phone interview Sept. 14.

“We did not seek, and are very saddened by, Garry’s resignation,” Tarbox told Wiscasset Newspaper. “We have tremendous respect for Garry, both for the years of service he’s provided and the dedication that he has given to the job.”

For years, roads maintenance has run over its budget, and selectmen would tap emergency funds and would hold some of the last invoices to instead pay them at the start of the next fiscal year in July, Tarbox explained. Then this year, that budget ran out mid-April and, by the end of May, the board asked G & D Cromwell – Cromwell’s and brother Dennis Cromwell’s firm – to hold off on further invoices; and at town meeting this June, voters agreed to another $18,000 for the roads maintenance budget, Tarbox continued.

In the new fiscal year, the board decided to pay no more invoices from G & D Cromwell until Commissioner Cromwell gave the board a plan for how road funds will be spent, Tarbox said. Since then, the town has paid one invoice and received two others, in August, still unpaid, he said. Maine Municipal Association concurred the board has the authority to request information from the road commissioner before the board authorizes payments, he added.

Tarbox said he told Commissioner Cromwell the plan could be in any form, even by using Tarbox as a scribe, but the board received no plan. Tarbox added, he told Commissioner Cromwell it was understood the plan could change, but, to manage spending, they needed a plan to start from.

Also reached by phone Sept. 14, Garry Cromwell recalled the matter differently. He said the board wanted to know every inch of what would be done, down to the last dollar. He told Wiscasset Newspaper he has not had to do that before, and he is not going to start now. Voters approved the roads budget, he noted. 

In the resignation letter Tarbox provided at Wiscasset Newspaper’s request, Cromwell said he has enjoyed working for the town and its people. Then he states, “Times are changing now and the current administration seems to think the road commissioner has a lack of knowledge and trust to what is best for the town.”

“Well that’s not true,” Tarbox commented on the statement. “We have a lot of respect for Garry and do want his knowledge for specifics on the roads.” As for the requested plan, Tarbox said, “We were not asking for something very detailed.”

Cromwell’s letter continues: “I have been doing this type of work ... for almost 50 years. True I’m not a chemist nor engineer. Yet my experience here on Westport is unmatched ...” Cromwell thanked supporters and “all of Westport,” and said he’ll still be around just not as road commissioner.

According to Wiscasset Newspaper files, Cromwell has been road commissioner since about 1996 and, in June, was re-elected to his latest three-year term. He said Sept. 14, he will not run again and his latest term would have been his final one anyway because he will be 70 when it would have ended in 2025.

Asked if someone will be appointed and/or if an election might be called to finish the term, Tarbox said the situation is too new to say. The board discussed the resignation in an executive session Sept. 12 as a personnel matter. “And coming out of that, we have no specific course of action yet ... nothing yet that we can report ... We are in the process of determining how we will go forward with the road commissioner position.” The board received Cromwell’s resignation “with great regret,” and accepted it, Tarbox said.

The board meets next at 7 p.m. Sept. 26 at the town office.

As of Sept. 15, the road commissioner section of the town website at westportisland.us states, until a new one is appointed, contact selectmen at selectboard@westportisland.us or 882-8477, ext. 4.

Also Sept. 12, the board went with Edgecomb firm SR Griffin Construction’s $142,140 bid on pre- and post-paving roadwork on parts of Greenleaf and East Shore roads, Tarbox said; Chesterfield Associates of Westport Island bid $195,000.