Incoming marine services director Bill Chace Jr. has big plans once he starts in his new role Wednesday, July 2, and will work with a host of new faces once he shoves off.

Chace, a long-time Westporter who was unanimously named the new marine services director earlier this month, has done a bit of everything on the water from running tugs and transportation barges to fishing on the Bering Sea. Over the last few years, he’s been a regular on the Westport River, fishing aboard his 24-foot Phoenix and volunteering with the shellfish relay program.

“This is a big job,” he told the select board earlier this month. “This is really two jobs in one.”

When Chace heard that Chris Leonard was leaving in early July, he decided to put in for the position and ended up beating out three other local candidates for the post. As candidate interviews with select board members were unfolding, he also contacted police chief Chris Dunn and fire chief Daniel Baldwin about the department’s future, and public face.

He wanted to know if it’d be possible to better integrate the harbor department into police, fire and EMS. A long talk ensued and “at the end of that we have agreed that some of the police details on the weekends could be put aboard one of the boats so we could show the badge, if you will, out on the river.”

“I think we can integrate ourselves in a more effective way,” he said, adding that Chief Baldwin offered his department’s assistance in training assistant harbormasters in life-saving and other medical disciplines.

New faces

When he starts in just under two weeks, he’ll have a two or three new department members at the ready.

At Monday evening’s select board meeting, Chace asked for approval in appointing Andrew Manchester and Kevin Carter as assistant harbormasters and shellfish wardens.

Carter, an avid fisherman who works in engineering and coaches baseball, is “not just a great marine talent,” Chace said. “He’s also a guy who knows his way around the engineering world (and) I think we will mesh quite well together.”

As for Manchester, Chace said, “you know his last name. The Manchesters have been in Westport as long as there’s been a Westport.”

Manchester has fished as far out as Georges Bank and currently works with uncle Wayne building docks around town — he’s “a man with a work ethic (and) we need that.”

“Andrew is just that young ball of energy that I think would be the future of this department.”

With the impending departure of deputy harbormaster Gary Tripp, who recently submitted his resignation, the new harbor department will include Chace, and assistants Rick Smith, Jim Perry, and Carter and Manchester.

While Chace said he is excited to step in, he said Westport owes Leonard for his “yeoman’s work” leading the department over the past decade.

“I’ve seen him operate on a daily basis,” Chace told the select board earlier this month. “We all owe him a debt of gratitude ... he’s really done a great job.”

Apart from keeping a presence on the water and overseeing the shellfish program, Leonard was a keen financial eye and “as far as budgeting issues, he has left the department in very good shape.”

“He did a yeoman’s job dealing with the tasks he was faced with.”