Jennifer Olsen, executive director of Waterville Main Street, has resigned effective Jan. 1, according to a news release from the organization’s board of directors.
Olsen said “that the timing is right for the move, and that she plans to embark on entrepreneurship,” according the release.
No additional information about Olsen’s plans was available Tuesday.
Olsen, who was previously director of Main Street Skowhegan, assumed the Waterville post in September 2012.
June L’Heureux, office manager for more than a decade, will step in to manage the program, the release said.
Charlie Giguere, president of Waterville Main Street, said in the release that Olsen “has taken the organization through some significant transitions, and put us in a good place to move forward.”
“We are sad to see her go and are happy for her in her new endeavor,” he said. “June will continue the good work we do in downtown Waterville.”
Among other efforts, Olsen was on the steering committee that was tasked with finding ways to improve downtown’s ecomony and make it more economically vital, and effort that brought a collaboration with Colby College, which has bought four downtown buildings since last summer.
Olsen said in July that when she first came to Waterville in the role of executive director, the Levine’s and Hains buildings, two of those that Colby bought, were high on the list of priorities as downtown property that needed attention. The city’s comprehensive plan stated that improving the buildings would make a big difference to the downtown and how people feel about it, she said.
“Certainly, (Colby buying them) is a Main Street director’s dream come true because it has been such a priority,” she said.
L’Heureux was awarded the 2015 Mid-Maine Chamber of Commerce’s Customer Service Stardom Award earlier this year.
L’Heureux runs daily operations and manages logistics at the downtown association, including its social media effort, and is the engineer behind many downtown events.
When Olsen was named executive director in 2012, she told the Morning Sentinel, “The opportunity to work with a larger Main Street program that’s in a different stage of its development is a good opportunity for me professionally.”
The board will announce its transition strategy in the coming weeks, according to the release.
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