MADISON — Town officials have appointed their town clerk and treasurer as interim town manager while they search for a permanent replacement for the top administrative post.

Cheyenne Stevens, 24, who also held the title of deputy manager and is the town’s registrar of voters and Living Well in Madison coordinator, takes over for Denise Ducharme. Town officials terminated Ducharme’s employment earlier this month.

The Select Board appointed Stevens to the interim position after executive sessions following its regular meeting Monday night, Stevens said.

Stevens, of Anson, said her goal as interim town manager is simply to keep the ship sailing. Town office staff has been stepping up to take on additional, smaller duties while she tackles bigger tasks, Stevens said.

“During the interim period, it’s just making sure that everything is running smoothly, everything that needs to get done is completed,” Stevens said in an interview via telephone Friday morning. “And really just making sure that everyone is communicating and working together through this period.”

She told the Select Board on Monday night that the town is receiving bookkeeping assistance from Somerset County Finance Director Patrick Dolan. In the weeks before Ducharme was ousted, she was called out for months of missing financial reconciliations and had begun to catch up and improve the town’s processes.

Stevens said she grew up in Bingham, went to high school in Madison and studied public administration at the University of Maine at Augusta. Stevens said, in 2024, she earned an online “mini” master’s of business administration from the University of Miami, which is a more condensed version of a traditional MBA program.

Stevens has worked for the town since 2020, when she started as an intern at the town office under then-Town Manager Tim Curtis and coordinator of Living Well in Madison. The initiative is a grant-supported effort that aims to support Madison’s aging adults.

She said she took a brief break from the coordinator position and was hired back in April 2023 to that position and to assist with grant writing and other administrative tasks.

The town hired her as clerk, treasurer and registrar of voters in November 2023, Stevens said.

Stevens said she is continuing to earn her town clerk wage of $27.04 per hour at 40 hours per week, which totals about $1,082. The Select Board agreed to pay her an additional stipend of $480 per week for the interim town manager duties, she said.

Town officials, meanwhile, have posted the town manager position and are accepting applications through May 14. More information about the job and application requirements is available at madisonmaine.com.

Stevens said she intends to apply.

The Select Board fired Ducharme April 6. Meeting minutes show that, after a 22-minute closed-door executive session, the board first decided unanimously not to renew Ducharme’s contract. Then, after a 10-minute executive session, the five members voted unanimously to “terminate duties of (Ducharme’s) contract.”

Ducharme, 66, hired in August 2023, was on a three-year contract set to expire June 30. Select Board Chair Sally Dwyer said the town is paying Ducharme through the end of her contract.

Her contract stipulated that if the Select Board terminates her for cause, Ducharme is entitled to a six-week buyout at her current salary as well as paid out unused vacation time at 100% and paid out sick time per the town personnel policy. The contract requires the Select Board to provide a 30-day notice for termination, but the board can request Ducharme not report to work during that time, provided the town continues to compensate her and provide benefits.

In the wake of the decision, town officials issued a brief statement that did not actually name Ducharme or indicate why they made their decision. It only said they did not renew her contract and she was no longer doing the job.

Dwyer and Ducharme declined to comment on the circumstances that led to the move. Other Select Board members — Kathy Estes, John Martins and Michael Pike — referred questions to Dwyer; Shawn Bean did not respond to inquiries.

At Monday’s meeting, Dwyer once again said neither she nor the board members would address the matter further, saying that board deliberations took place in confidential executive sessions.

“The board will not be providing additional details or engaging in discussion on this matter,” Dwyer said.