Dalton Town Manager Intends to Retire
DALTON, Mass. — Town Manager Tom Hutcheson announced his intention to retire, effective July 1, during Monday night's Select Board meeting.
“In town administration, every day, you're helping somebody do something, you're moving some particular project forward which is going to change a community and make life better for everyone,” he said. “And that's been very rewarding."
Hutcheson has worked in town administration for 14 years.
Hutcheson said he decided to retire now because of the Social Security Windfall Elimination Provision.
According to the Social Security website, the provision is a formula used to adjust Social Security benefits for individuals receiving non-covered pensions, which are pensions from employers that do not withhold Social Security taxes, such as state and local governments or non-U.S. employers.
He explained that the change allows him to receive his full Social Security benefits, rather than the previous reduced amount.
This change was retroactive to Jan. 5 and requires the Social Security Administration to recalculate benefits for anyone impacted by the provision during 2024.
During his more than four years working in Dalton, Hutcheson said he worked with a large number of intelligent and talented people willing to volunteer their time for the town.
"Towns really run on volunteers and the capability of the people here, their experience, what they bring with them from their own work and lives, really is extraordinary, and it is what makes the town work," he said.
"We have several boards and commissions that have real authority over what goes on in town, and to have people who are dedicated enough to volunteer their time to take on some of that tough regulatory work and enforcement work is inspiring."
Before taking the position of town manager, he had a career at the Organic Trade Association for nearly 12 years.
"It was really an outgrowth of the alternative healthy foods movement of decades ago. And this was an organization rallying around the organic label. And I was involved in the very beginning of the rules that currently exist to say what or what isn't organic," Hutcheson said.
"So, I worked for almost 12 years with [United States Department of Agriculture] and Congress on rules and laws affecting the organic trade, and that was great."
Hutcheson said he was impressed by the public servants he met in that position, which inspired him to become one of them.
"I went from the national where there's all sorts of work that's being done that's very important, that's structural. It sets up how everybody else is going to play by the rules and that was great, but I didn't have an immediate sense of any effect that my work was having," he said.
He said the impact towns can have on residents is "one of incredible richness."
He characterized the work as puzzle-solving while juggling needs and funding.
"To some extent, the pace of municipal work is, of course, relatively slow, with town meetings authorizing funding for things generally, once a year, sometimes twice a year or more but that means that there's a tremendous importance attached to town meetings," he said.
"And I have to say, I think the thing that I value most about town administration is working on the annual town meeting and gathering people's requests for what they need to spend in order to do their jobs better or to make the town a better place, or to change a bylaw that allows people to do more things."
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