The Village of Northport will most likely be starting the search for a new manager in the months ahead after the Leelanau County Board of Commissioners extended an administrator position to Jim Dyer last Thursday. Dyer and the county came to a contract agreement Tuesday at the Leelanau County Board of Commissioner regular meeting, and is expected to begin in his new role March 31.
Dyer, who has more than 30 years of experience as a municipal management professional, has served as the village manager for over a year now. Part of Dyer’s contract with the village is he has to give a 90 day notice to vacate the position, so there will also likely be a transition period to allot Northport enough time to hire someone to replace him. Northport Village Council President Chris McCann said they will have to look at using the same Michigan Leadership Institute (MLI) process implemented over a year ago when former interim manager Chet Janik helped the municipality search for potential manager candidates.
“It’s certainly a little bittersweet, but knowing what I’ve seen Jim do in Northport, if he can take that to that county level, we’re all going to be better for it… I’m very optimistic about what it will mean for Leelanau and all the other communities, not just Northport,” McCann said. “I think that’s what we’ve tried to tell people in Northport is that the things that we’re going to do for this community — the things that we wanted Jim to come in and do — were not to benefit anyone individual or group or party, but I think we’ve seen an effort to improve the community in multiple levels, our water, our sewer, our parks, we’re talking about housing… Jim has set the standard for what we’re looking for.”
