Adams Selectmen Approve Tourism, Animal Control Hires
 The Selectmen on Wednesday approved the hiring of a tourism director and an animal control officer. |
ADAMS, Mass. — The Board of Selectmen approved a new director of tourism and an animal control officer during Wednesday night’s meeting.
The board approved Samantha Talora as the new tourism development director. She was chosen from a selection of 18 different applicants.
"We ended up getting a few candidates that had years of experience at the management level and who were intrigued to work at the municipal level and take on the challenge of creating something new in a community that's on the rise," Town Administrator Jonathan Butler said.
Talora has worked the past year as an administrative assistant in the Police Department for the past year. Before this, she was a manager at Canyon Ranch and Cranwell resort. She has a total of eight years' experience in tourism marketing and event planning, and operated her own business, Samantha Talora Events.
"We went with Samantha because she had the experience in event planning and tourism marketing with the hope that she could take what she learned at Canyon Ranch and Cranwell and apply that to how to get people to Adams,” Butler said.
The board also approved North Adams salon owner Kimberly Witek as the new part-time animal control officer.
"She has a lot of experience with cats and dogs, and she is comfortable with wildlife," Butler said. "She lives on a farm so she is familiar with the livestock element of the job, and we are very pleased to have Kimberly come in."
In addition to approving in positions, the board also approved the warrant articles for the March 24 special town meeting.
Included in the warrant articles was an article that would allow a vote to appropriate from available funds or borrow a sum of $552,000 for purchasing the former car wash on 4 Hoosac St. and turn it into a train station. The town will be reimbursed 70 percent of the project's total cost by the state.
"The town will propose to spend its share of $165,000 to come from this year's 2015 free cash available for capital budget," Butler said. "The other $370,000 will actually be paid for by a PARC grant we have already received from the federal government."
The board also approved the warrant to vote on easements needed in the construction of the roundabout on Friend, Columbia, and Renfrew streets All the easements have been negotiated.
With this the board also approved a warrant article that would allow the town to vote on the $970,000 needed to pay for the renovations of the library.
"At this point we are about 75 percent design right now, and our 100 percent completed design estimate is around $690,000 separate from heating improvements," Butler said. "We are reviewing whether or not to transition the building to natural gas."
Tags: animal control, appointments, tourism,
