Hines named Ludlow manager

By Elna Seabrooks
Staff Writer
    LUDLOW — Ludlow’s new town manager is Diane Hines who started her official duties yesterday. She was selected by a panel of six townspeople according to Norene Foster, Ludlow town treasurer, who added that the determining factor “was her experience because she is currently the town manager of Hammond.”
    Hines was notified Aug. 27 about the decision which Foster said will not conflict with duties in Hammond, where she lives, since that post only requires one day a week.
    Hines will be working at the Ludlow town office, said Foster, Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays from 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Karen Beaulieu will continue as town clerk, according to Foster.
    The new position for Hines will require her to undergo “very, very little training. Minimal training —because she already does everything,” said Foster who estimated it would take “a day or so, here and there.”
    Hines and her husband, Glenn, are well known in the area as professional artists. Their 2,000 pound bronze moose sculpture was installed in Houlton’s Riverfront Park for the 2009 Fourth of July weekend. The artists have leased it to the town for one dollar a year.
    Foster commented on Hines’ appointment that “she is an excellent choice and she will do a good job.”
    Ludlow was without a town manager as far back as mid-February when the Board of Selectmen suspended Mary Beth Foley without pay. That came on the heels of a state audit of town finances following the filing of a false financial report. State Auditor Neria Douglass, in a report to the selectmen, found “discrepancies” in Ludlow’s finances. The selectmen announced at their June 30 meeting that Foley, who had served as town manager for 14 years, turned in her resignation.