BELHAVEN — A former NCDOT engineer is taking over the reins for the Town of Belhaven.

Tuesday, the town announced that Woody Jarvis, a 32-year veteran of NCDOT, had been hired to replace Guinn Leverett, who retired last month. Jarvis starts his new job today.

Jarvis, a Beaufort County native who has lived outside of Belhaven for the past 10 years, said he and his wife, Joy, are immersed in the community, its politics and their nuances — a factor that he feels gives him an advantage on day one. In addition, his past role with NCDOT required him to manage personnel and budgets and to work closely with local governments.

“I think a lot of my work experience is related to the day-to-day operations of the town. We’ve had a really good relationship and gotten a lot of things done,” Jarvis said.

The job brings challenges, Jarvis said, including how to move Belhaven forward and establish the right brand of health care — a hot topic since Belhaven lost its hospital in July of 2014, when Vidant Health opted to close it, citing financial reasons. Vidant Health is currently building a 24 hours a day, seven days a week emergency clinic to replace it, while the Belhaven town government has been working to regain ownership of the hospital property and reopen the hospital under new management.

Belhaven’s issues are solely about the hospital, however. Jarvis believes finding ways to build a town that can sustain itself imperative.

“The keys are health care, what to do with the waterfront; how to enhance tourism and make people want to come live in Belhaven is another key thing and all those issues are related,” Jarvis said.

Jarvis said he looks forward to receiving the audit the North Carolina Office of the State Auditor is currently conducting because it will give him a starting point.

“I’m hoping the result of the audit will give me a little bit of a road map — to give me a list of things we immediately need to look at or improve,” Jarvis said.