Keene Town Supervisor Bill Ferebee will resign from his position to take a job with the office of Gov. Andrew Cuomo as a community resource liaison for the state Environmental Facilities Corporation. (Enterprise photo —  Antonio Olivero)

KEENE — Keene Town Supervisor Bill Ferebee formally submitted his letter of resignation to the Keene Town Board at a special meeting Monday night.

Speaking before the meeting, Ferebee said he’s taken a job with the office of Gov. Andrew Cuomo as a community resource liaison for the state Environmental Facilities Corporation.

Ferebee said eight residents of Keene have submitted letters of interest for his position, which he will vacate on Nov. 28. Deputy Supervisor Paul Martin will serve as acting town supervisor through the remainder of the year, Ferebee said. The outgoing town supervisor added that neither Martin nor another member of the Keene Town Board is interested in the town supervisor position.

There are two women and six men who submitted letters of intent, Keene Town Clerk Ellen Estes said Tuesday morning. They are James Figg, Devon Holbrook, John Hudson, Dennis Gallagher, Wendy Knight, Angela Murphy, Paul Vincent and Joe Pete Wilson Jr.

The Keene Town Board’s next regular meeting is Dec. 13, and Ferebee said the town board intends to select a new town supervisor before the end of the year, who would then serve until the end of next year to finish out Ferebee’s term.

Ferebee said his position with the EFC will be to assist municipalities and private businesses in acquiring grants to fund projects related to drinking water and clean water. He said he will work out of an office in Warrensburg with a satellite office in Albany, as the role serves a portion of the state north of Albany and west to Watertown.

Ferebee said he was offered the job after mailing a letter of interest to the governor’s office in late June. He said since the governor worked to help repair Keene’s roads in the aftermath of Hurricane Irene five years ago, he and Cuomo have become more friendly.

“I respect the governor,” Ferebee said. “I think he’s done a lot of great things for the Adirondacks, and the North Country. I just feel his direction is in the right direction to help assist us to grow and help us financially to grow and bring the attention needed (to the region). Looking at how he assisted all of us during Hurricane Irene. I get the feeling he is a sincere guy, and I think he would be good to work for.”

Though Ferebee didn’t directly apply for the position with the EFC, he said his past experience on the other end of EFC projects as a local elected official provides him with ideal perspective for his new position.

“I’ve been through the process for grants with EFC seven years ago, so I’ve lived the difficulty to get through that process,” he said. “It’s not so much them, EFC, as it is the applicant, knowing how to do things they are looking for. I’m hoping, that’s my goal, is to hopefully help small towns, people like me who need to apply for money that are under a mandate to improve, to provide assistance to them getting through the paperwork.”

With his resignation, Ferebee will also effectively vacate his role as chairman of the Essex County Board of Supervisors, the body that governs the county. The 18-member board selects a chairman and vice chairman from its ranks and Wilmington town Supervisor Randy Preston, an independent, is the current vice chairman and is the only board member to express interest in the role of chairman.

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Andy Flynn, editor of the Lake Placid News, contributed to this report.