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Cheshire officials evaluating finalists to replace retiring town manager

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CHESHIRE — Residents will soon know who will replace Michael Milone as town manager.

With the help of a Chicago-area search firm, the Town Council’s search committee has gone from a field of 72 applicants to a final group of four. Council Chairman Rob Oris, who serves on the committee with fellow Republican Tom Ruocco and Democrat Peter Talbot, said interviews with the four finalists were concluded last week.

“The full council interviewed each of the finalists,” Oris said. “Now, it’s just a matter of sorting through who are first choice is.”

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The field of four was selected from a group of seven, said Heidi Voorhees, one of the principals of the search firm GovHR USA of Northbrook, Illinois. Voorhees said she conducted phone or Skype interviews with many of the original field of 72 applicants and then made her recommendations to the council’s search committee.

The seven candidates that came from Voorhees’ recommendations then were interviewed by the the council’s search committee.

Sources have told the New Haven Register that were at least two internal candidates from that field of seven. Oris declined comment on whether any of the four finalists were already town employees.

The Town Council is expected to meet in a closed-door session this week and Talbot has said the goal is to have Milone’s replacement selected by Dec. 1, which would allow the selection to be made by existing council members. Newly-elected Councilman David Veleber, who edged 1st District incumbent Michael Ecke in municipal elections earlier this month, will join the governing body as a new council is seated next week.

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Milone took over the town manager’s job from John Salomone in 2000. Before taking over that job, he spent the previous 10 years as Cheshire’s finance director.

Before coming to Cheshire, Milone worked for 13 years in New Haven’s city administration, spending the last six years as the controller.

luther.turmelle@hearstmediact.com

Luther Turmelle is a business reporter with Hearst Connecticut Media Group. Turmelle has covered the towns of Cheshire and Wallingford and he specializes in the utility and energy beats. A graduate of Boston University, Turmelle has held multiple leadership roles in the Society of Professional Journalists, including two terms on the organization's national Board of Directors.