PORT TOWNSEND – After 2½ years as Jefferson County environmental health director, Mike McNickle is taking a promotion in Oregon.

His last day at work will be Oct. 31, and he’ll show up to the office on that Halloween day dressed as a ghost, he said.

McNickle, 39, will begin his new job as director of Yamhill County Public Health in McMinnville, Ore., on Nov. 5.

He said his primary reason for resigning was because the new job is a promotion.

With a current salary of almost $63,000 a year, the new position offers a salary that “is more,” he said.

McNickle will move to McMinnville with his wife, Jenny, and their 9-year-old and 2-year-old sons, and will be closer to family members who live in the Portland area.

He said he will miss Jefferson County.

“It’s a nice place to live,” he said. “Aesthetically, it’s one of the most beautiful places to live.”