DANVERS, MA — Danvers Town Manager Steve Bartha publicly informed the community on Thursday night that he had received a conditional offer to become the next town manager in Lexington and that “it is something I am excited about.”
While Bartha said the job switch will not be finalized until he meets with Lexington officials for contract negotiations next week, he said that tentatively his final day in Danvers after a decade in the town’s top administrative position will be on or about Oct. 25.
“This was not an easy decision,” Bartha said. “This fall will mark 10 years that I have served the town of Danvers. I have enjoyed the heck out of that time. We have accomplished a lot as a community, as a board and as an organization — things I am very proud of.”
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He said he applied for the Lexington job “after several months of consideration and discussions with my wife, friends, people that I trust.”
The Lexington Select Board voted on Wednesday night 5-0 to offer Bartha the position.
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“It is something I am excited about,” he said. “If I am being honest, I am a little intimidated. But I am excited about it.”
He said he met with Select Board Chair Daniel Bennett earlier on Thursday to inform him of the pending move and they decided he should make the public statement that night as news started to circulate about Bartha’s departure.
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“I am not going anywhere yet,” Bartha said. “We still have work to do. But the chair and I talked about starting the meeting with that to put it out there.”
Bennett asked Bartha to begin the process of securing a firm to lead the search the find his successor so that it can be completed as promptly and effectively as possible. Bartha said interested candidates could then possibly be forthcoming within “the next month or so.”
He said he was requesting the six-week notice to Lexington in order to give him time to “put things in place for a smooth transition.”
“That’s important to me.”
(Scott Souza is a Patch field editor covering Beverly, Danvers, Marblehead, Peabody, Salem and Swampscott. He can be reached at [email protected]. X/Twitter: @Scott_Souza.)
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