Lincoln County’s new planner, Megan McLaughlin, is only in her third week on the job, but she’s making plans to speak with every town’s planning board as soon as possible. “I want to know what the towns need,” she said. “Do they need help with ordinance provisions, or comprehensive plans?”

McLaughlin previously worked in a town planning department. She knows most planning happens at the town level. She worked in Old Orchard Beach for several years as associate planner under Jeffrey Hinderliter. “He was my mentor in the planning field,” she said.

She and her fiance, Tim Norwood, moved to Woolwich last March with their five dogs and four goats. Norwood worked out of Boothbay Harbor, and with McLaughlin working in Old Orchard Beach, one of them was driving hours every day. The move to Woolwich meant the drive time was split, which made things much easier, McLaughin said. The couple plans to wed on Sept. 1.

McLaughlin learned county planner Bob Faunce was going to retire, and she decided to apply. “I was so excited when they offered me the position,” she said.

Right now, she’s still working with Faunce to learn the ropes. Her new job has a more advisory role than working as a town planner. “In Old Orchard Beach, I worked with projects from sketch plans all the way through the process. This will be different, because the towns will be doing most of the work. I’ll just be there to help them in whatever way they need me to help.”

She is also looking into brainstorming which towns could benefit from a Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry round of grants for culverts that aid in anadromous and catadromous fish passage. Anadromous fish, such as salmon, begin life in fresh water and spend much of their lives in the ocean before returning to spawn in the streams where they were born; catadromous fish, such as eels, are born in the ocean, and live in fresh water, returning to the ocean to spawn. Both types of fish can be stymied by manmade structures such as roadways, so the DACF supports towns looking for ways to help the fish move between sea and stream to complete their life cycles.

“Mary Ellen Barnes and I took a road trip of some of the towns in the county,” she said.  At some point, a more complete survey of fish passages will be needed, she said.

She is also very interested in much of what Faunce was focused on, such as flood plain management and sea level rise issues. “I am certain we’ll continue that important work,” she said.