Wareham Administrator Says He's Headed to Wenham

The town administrator in the South Coast town of Wareham will be the next town administrator in Wenham, WarehamVillageSoup.com reported on Saturday evening.

Mark Andrews told the Wareham Board of Selectmen on Saturday that he is resigning from the town administrator position in Wareham to become Wenham Town Administrator. Andrews told the Wareham Board of Selectmen that he plans to begin in Wenham on April 16, The Standard-Times reported on Sunday.

The Wenham Board of Selectmen to take over before Town Administrator Jeff Chelgren leaves on April 13. Chelgren will be the , beginning in May.

Neither the WarehamVillageSoup.com nor Standard-Times report says whether Andrews plans to fill the Wenham position permanently or on an interim basis. Chelgren and Molly Martins, chairman of the Wenham Board of Selectmen, could not be reached for comment on Sunday.

On Thursday afternoon, Chelgren told Hamilton-Wenham Patch that the Board of Selectmen had, at that time, identified the primary and secondary choices for the position and were negotiating with the top choice.

“If that is successful, we expect that contracts will be signed as of Monday or Tuesday,” Chelgren said on Thursday.

Chelgren did not name the board’s top choice nor did he say if the board was negotiating to fill the position with an interim hire or fill it permanently.

On Feb. 29, Chelgren told Patch that Andrews was one of the Selectmen’s top choices . The other two finalists were Richard Kwiatkowski of Orange and John Sanquinet of Plymouth. Andrews lives in the Bradford section of Haverhill, Chelgren said previously. WarehamVillageSoup.com reported that he lives in Onset.

Andrews has worked in Wareham since December 2009 and has also held finance position with the city of Lawrence and Northern Essex Community College.

Andrews told the Standard-Times one of his top accomplishments in more than two years in Wareham was increasing public safety by putting seven new police officers on the street and hiring a new police chief - - to lead the department through the accredidation process.