MADISON — Cheyenne Stevens wears many hats in town government.

She is town clerk, treasurer, registrar of voters and coordinator of the Living Well in Madison program. In April, she swapped out another title of deputy town manager for interim town manager.

Now, Stevens is town manager — and she hopes to soon pass some of the other job titles on to someone else.

The Select Board hired Stevens, 24, of Anson, to the town’s top administrative post at the end of May. She officially assumes the job July 1, the beginning of the town’s fiscal year.

Stevens’ age undoubtedly makes her among the youngest municipal administrators in the state, a unique accomplishment in a profession that has become somewhat of a revolving door in recent years, leaving many municipalities struggling to find and retain qualified candidates.

“I’m just trying to do the best that I can,” Stevens said in a recent interview. “I know that it’s not something that I think about every day. And, honestly, the people that I work with, I think they think more about my performance than my age.”

The main focus now, Stevens said, is keeping town government running, including filling vacancies like the town clerk and treasurer position.

“Once all of our vacancies have been filled, then it will be evaluating a clear path to move forward, getting new people trained (and) working through most immediate needs,” she said. “And after that, that will be when we’ll start to have a clear sense of direction.”

Under her three-year contract, finalized earlier this month, Stevens is to be paid a salary based on an hourly rate of $39.04, which adds up to about $81,000 per year based on a 40-hour week with no eligibility for overtime pay.

As interim manager, Stevens has been making her town clerk rate of $27.04 per hour at 40 hours per week, plus an additional stipend of $480 per week. That effectively adds up to the same salary she will be paid as town manager under the contract.

Upon successful completion of a six-month probationary review, Stevens is set to receive a $1 per hour wage increase. After that, annual increases would follow in line with raises given to other town staff, unless the Select Board decides otherwise, the contract says.

Other benefits for Stevens, like health insurance and time off, are to be the same as what the town offers other full-time employees, according to the contract.

Town officials praised Stevens when they announced her hiring at the end of May. Former Select Board Chair Sally Dwyer called her the “perfect” person to lead town government moving forward.

Stevens said she grew up in Bingham, went to high school in Madison and studied public administration at the University of Maine at Augusta. In 2024, she earned an online “mini” master’s of business administration from the University of Miami; the degree 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 former 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.

Town officials tapped her as interim manager in April amid the ousting of Denise Ducharme, who held the position since August 2023. 

The Select Board initially voted against renewing Ducharme’s contract, which had been set to expire in June, and to terminate her. The town’s attorney, however, pointed out the board did not follow proper procedure, and Ducharme later agreed to resign.

Specific reasons for the board’s decision to attempt to remove Ducharme from the position remain unknown, with board members declining to elaborate and the town denying a public records request for a written resolution of removal that state law requires. There is no record of any discipline imposed on Ducharme during her tenure.

Ducharme’s tenure included its fair share of public controversy, from two years of debate over a planned addiction treatment clinic to the recall of the town’s elected road commissioner. In the weeks before Ducharme was ousted, she was called out for months of missing financial reconciliations, although she told the Select Board she was working to address the problem and improve financial processes.