By Scott Bleile

The town of Bridgeville completed their search for a new town manager by hiring new manager Bethany DeBussy at Monday’s monthly commission meeting. The search has be ongoing for the last couple of months after previous town manager Jesse Savage left for another job. DeBussy started her job on Tuesday, June 9.

Shown (l to r) during Monday’s Bridgeville Commission meeting are: front row- Commissioner Bruce Smith, newly appointed Town Manager Bethany DeBussy, and Commissioner Thomas Moran; back row- Commissioner Marlene Saunders and President Tom Carey.

During Monday’s meeting, Commission President Thomas Carey announced the town had hired DeBussy as the new town manager.

“We are very pleased to announce that we have offered the job of town manager to an individual who has accepted,” Carey told the commissioners and Facebook Live audience. “Our new town manager will be Bethany DeBussy. She will start tomorrow (Tuesday). Bethany comes to us from the town of Frederica, where she spent five years as the town manager. We had several interviews with her, and we feel she will do a great job for the town. We are excited for her to get started.”

“I want to thank Commission President Carey and the commissioners,” said DeBussy. “I am excited to get started and am looking forward to getting to work.”

The commissioners also heard an updated Heritage Shores special tax report from MuniCap, Inc. They also were given updates about the departments within the town.

“I want to recognize the police department for helping with the peaceful protests in the area. They did a great job,” said Carey. Commissioner Marlene Saunders also commended the police department for all the hard work it is doing with the new code enforcement duty. “I want to thank all the officers for taking on their new duties with code enforcement. It has been going very smoothly,” she said.

Commission President Carey also presented the Fiscal Year 2020-2021 to the commissioners. “Our budget going into next year looks good,” said Carey. “We expect to have an income of $2,839,000 for the next year. We are hoping this number does not change due to the state’s budget problems. We will have $21,000 less in expenses, which will leave us with about a $70,000 surplus, but again we must keep in mind what the state might be doing and hope that is does not affect us. The commissioners passed the budget with a 4-0 vote.

Carey also thanked Little Wagon Market for the flower barrels placed around the community. “These flower barrels look great and we hope to get more around town,” said Carey.