HAMLET ― Jonathan Blanton isn’t leaving the Seaboard City afterall.
The Hamlet City Council voted Saturday to hire Blanton, again, as city manager, according to Mayor Bill Bayless.
The Council offered Blanton a three-year contract at 90,000 per year, which Bayless said “puts us in the middle of all the towns around us.”
“He has just done an exceptionally good job for the City of Hamlet,” Bayless said by phone Saturday evening. “We just hated to lose him.”
The mayor added that Blanton was well respected in town.
The contract, Bayless said, will allow Blanton to make long-range plans and carry them out.
Blanton was originally hired in January 2017 to replace Marcus Abernethy, another young municipal manager who left after a short time because his spouse was promoted.
Blanton had announced his resignation in April after he decided to take a job with UNC-Charlotte as business affairs and finance and oversee an $18 million budget, as well as personnel and business operations for the University’s Graduate School.
His last day as full-time city manager was May 17, but Blanton had agreed to stay on part-time as interim manager until the position was filled.
Blanton could not be reached for comment Saturday evening.
