Cheshire Looks to Fill DPW Director Position By New Year
CHESHIRE, Mass. — The Selectmen would like to hire a new Department of Public Works director by the first of the year.
On Tuesday, they approved a new job description to begin advertising the position as soon as possible with the goal of bringing someone on board who can understudy current director Peter LeFebvre, who plans to retire in April.
"I recommend to the board that you move on this process sooner than later," Town Administrator Mark Webber said. "With an important position like this, if you have the luxury of doing it without a lot of heartaches, I would."
Webber suggested posting the position Jan. 2 with a cut-off date of Jan. 16. He said this would allow them to schedule interviews and hopefully have somebody by the end of February. This would give the individual six weeks to shadow LeFebvre.
Chairman Paul Astorino wanted to be more aggressive and advertise by the end of November and hire somebody for the first of the year.
Selectwoman Carol Francesconi said she felt having someone shadow under LeFebvre that long would be overkill.
"Three months that is too long for someone to learn a job; I give them six to eight weeks at the most," she said. "I think February is enough."
Webber said the earlier they start the process the more "wiggle" room they will have. He said this would come in handy if they do not get a good pool of applicants or have a longer interview process. He added that an extra person could also help plow.
Selectman Robert Ciskowski agreed and said although ambitious, they should aim for a more aggressive schedule.
"We may get someone with a steep learning curb, and I would say go with the aggressive schedule," he said. "I think realistically we may not be able to pull it off but we should try."
In other business, Webber said he plans to hold a conference call with special legal counsel and town counsel to figure out how to increase the select board from three to five members.
Town meeting voted to make this change last year.
Webber said special counsel said the town must vote to petition the Legislature to pass special legislation to allow the town to make the change.
Town counsel said because the town does not have a charter or regulations for the select board, they can just vote to make the change.
"We have two different opinions; we just want to make sure we are doing it right," Francesconi said.
• The Windsor and Wells Road blacktopping was to start Wednesday and take 2 1/2 days at the most.
• The new DPW truck has been built and will be sent to the dealer this week. The town should be able to use it by the end of February.
• The lower level Town Hall entrance door will need to be replaced this spring. Francesconi said the cost is between $5,000 and $10,000.
"We have to replace the whole frame, the skylight and the door," she said. "Its all rusted and the bottom is not going to last."
• The Master Plan Committee will hold a public forum in January to gather more information for the plan that should be finished in the spring.
"We want to talk about what we are doing take some more input from people," Ciskowski said.
• The Selectmen received a complaint that there was a lot of trash on Wells Road. LeFebvre said it is most likely from the trash haulers that do not cover their load.
"Some don't have the canvas over the top and stuff just falls out…others just have sideboards," he said. "They go over a bounce and if it’s a light bag it will go all over the place. We pick up bags quite often."
He said legally the haulers must cover their load but it is hard to spot a violation because their schedules are so sporadic.
The Selectmen said they would inform the police to keep an eye out.
• Town Clerk Christine Emerson reported the town received a silver star medal award from Massachusetts voting groups for its substantial support of early voting.
"We put in 30 hours for the early voting so I thought that was nice in the scheme of things," she said, adding that 1,891 people voted this election, which is a new record for Cheshire.
Tags: DPW, trash,
