NORWAY — A placard on Jill Lathan’s desk at the Norway Town Office reads “Fixer of Everything.”
Lathan, the newly hired town manager, said her son gave her the sign when she worked in the administration of Joseph A. Curtatone, who was the mayor of Somerville, Massachusetts, from 2004 to 2022.
She joined Somerville in 2014 to revitalize the Parks and Recreation Department and was later promoted to commissioner of the Department of Public Works.
“I’ve always been in professional roles,” she said, “so I’ve kind of helped kind of revitalize and kind of rejuvenate. So in my son’s terms, that’s a ‘fixer of everything.'”
Lathan said she is bringing her experience as a parks and recreation director and as a public works director to the small Maine community of Norway. Her hiring follows 19 months of interim leadership by Police Chief Jeffrey Campbell.
Campbell stepped in after former Town Manager Jeffrey Wilson was appointed a district court judge in April 2024.
Lathan said her experience in larger municipalities such as Somerville will translate directly to her work as town manager.
“I think municipal governments are still municipal governments,” she said. “It’s still about building ways, just building culture, having authentic governments, having a transparent government. So I think that it translates.
“I knew that eventually I wanted to be a town manager. And I think coming from a commissioner role to a town manager was very in sync. I was looking for a community that really gets invested, invested in employees, a community that really cares for each other.”
Though Lathan hails from Massachusetts and lives in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, she said she did her research before deciding to take on the Norway role.
“I did some research in recon and spent some time here,” she said. “I did a lot of research online and read a lot of information, and then I came to the town and talked with folks and went to your stores and your restaurants, and just was like, ‘There’s something special here.’”
She began work April 21 as Norway’s town manager.
Lathan said she had a chance to do what she called a “walkabout” during her first full week in the job, meeting town employees and department heads.
Her hiring comes at a busy time for a new manager to get acclimated. The annual town meeting is in June, and departments are deep into preparing budgets. Lathan said jumping in has been easy with help from the staff at the Town Office.
“I’m very impressed with the team that’s here. This is a phenomenal team,” she said. “They really have come together and made sure that Norway is still functional and operational and fiscally responsible.”
Lathan said she has been busy meeting with department heads and reviewing proposed budgets for upcoming fiscal years. She said that while she always expects there will be questions and concerns, she is largely pleased with the care each department has taken in preparing its budget.
“There will always be some sort of pushback regardless, but this team has done a phenomenal job … the budgets are very detailed, explaining every single project and why this, why that. That’s the transparency that we need,” she said.
Lathan also praised the Norway Select Board and the interview process.
“I had a great opportunity to meet the select board in my interview process. I found that they were wonderful, committed, authentic people, which was also a humongous draw. They were a select board that I could tell really works well together, that were good listeners, which is very important. But it was a good fit for me with them,” Lathan said.
While Lathan said most of her job now is talking to and listening to the concerns of the community, one of her main projects will be incorporating the town’s comprehensive plan with vision and ideas from residents.
“We need to work on and develop what that vision and ideas are going to be for the comprehensive plan,” she said. “It is sometimes a big dream wish list, but I think it’s important that we put our next 10‑year vision on paper and we come together as a community and talk about what we want Norway to be in the future.”
Norway’s current comprehensive plan dates to 2011, and the town adopted a new vision statement in 2023 describing a resilient rural community with moderate growth and economic vitality while preserving its historic downtown. Lathan said she hopes to refine the plan with input from residents.
“The 10‑year plan is not a 10‑year plan without the input from the people that actually live here. Their town is their town,” she said. “Our comprehensive plan has to be a community‑based comprehensive plan. It’s very important to me that we have community input and community vision. Like I said, everyone’s not going to be in the same room and agreeing what that vision will be, but I think we need to come to some idea about who we are and who we want to be for the future.”
Lathan said she anticipates challenges down the line. She noted that the cost of living continues to rise and, as a result, taxes “go a little higher,” which can lead to anxiety and, as she put it, angst. One of her goals, she said, is to maintain financial transparency while helping build a sustainable future for Norway and explaining each department’s budget requests.
“We have to make sure that we’re building a sustainable, healthy Norway. And that’s going to come with some growing pains. It’s going to come with, you know, some possibly some additional costs,” Lathan said.
“Who knows? We have to see, do that analysis and see where that’s going to lead. I think, you know, Norway is very sensitive to their taxpayers and understanding the challenges that folks have.”
