LANESBOROUGH, Mass. –— The Select Board appointed an assistant building director on Wednesday.
Tim Sears submitted his resume to the board and said he heard about the position and reached out to Building Commissioner Brian Duval.
"It can be a tough position. And if you followed recent activities here in Lanesborough, I'm not stating the obvious, but can you talk a little bit about because you've done the work before, right?" asked member Michael Murphy.
Sears started as a housing inspector in Pittsfield and then became building commissioner there and a health official. He was also director of buildings and grounds for the Mount Greylock Regional School District. He currently works at AC Wood Contracting.
"I've had a lot of experience, and as someone who's in the construction industry, also, it can be challenging. If Brian knows someone, or if I know someone you know, we have to excuse ourselves and be very forthright about that," he said. "But in the end, the building code is a little different from some of the other code enforcement and law enforcement, where we have to be able to write down what the violation is, so it either is or isn't. You can't really, oppress someone because you need to write it down. You have to cite the code. So I think it's just very black and white.
"The challenge can sometimes be, you know, if a town feels a certain way about certain subjects, then my attitude has always been to look through the code to try to find a way to make something happen."
Sears said he has already talked with the owner of AC Wood Contracting and would be available to do an inspection during the day if needed.
The board moved to appoint Sears as the assistant building inspector.
In other notes, Town Administrator Gina Dario reminded the board of the joint meetings with the Finance Committee, which is something they are doing for the first time. Department heads will be invited to the meetings to go over their budget proposals to keep residents as informed as possible before the annual town meeting.
Monday, March 2, is the first joint meeting.
"We're always just trying to be as transparent as we can as we go through this kind of the crux of the budget season for the next three months, as we approach town meeting," Dario said.
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BRPC Exec Search Panel Picks Brennan
By Breanna SteeleiBerkshires Staff
PITTSFIELD, Mass. — The Executive Director Search Committee voted Wednesday to move both finalists to the full Berkshire Regional Planning Commission, with a recommendation that Laura Brennan was the preferred candidate.
Brennan is also the economic development program manager for the BRPC. She has been in the role since July 2023 but has been with BRPC since 2017, first serving as the senior planner of economic development.
She earned her bachelor's degree from Franklin & Marshall College in Pennsylvania and earned a graduate-level certificate in local government leadership and management from Suffolk University.
Zogg is vice president of place and transportation for Tysons Community Alliance, a nonprofit that is committed to transforming Tysons, Va., into a more attractive urban center.
He previously was the director of planning, design, and construction at Georgetown Heritage in Virginia, where he directed the reimagining of Georgetown's C&O Canal National Historic Park.
They each had 45 minutes to answer a series of questions on Saturday, and the search committee said they were both great candidates. Meeting virtually on Wednesday, the members discussed which they preferred.
"In my own personal opinion, I think both candidates could do the job and actually had different skills. But I do favor Laura, because she can hit the ground running and with the time we have now, I think she is very familiar with the organization and its strengths and weaknesses and where we go from here," said Malcolm Fick.
"I would concur with Malcolm, especially because she was the only candidate who could speak directly to what's currently going on in the Berkshires, and really had a handle on every aspect of what BRPC does, could use examples, and showed that she actually understood the demographic information when that information was clearly available on the BRPC website, and through other means, and she was the only candidate who was able to integrate our regional data, our regional demographics, into her answers, and so I find her more highly qualified," said Marybeth Mitts.
Brennan was able to discus the comprehensive regional strategy the BRPC has worked on for Berkshire County and said she made sure they included voices from all over the region instead of what she referred to as the "usual suspects."
"That was an enormous priority of ours to make sure that the outreach that we did and the input that we gathered was not from only the usual suspects, but community groups that were emerging in a lot of different corners of the region and with a lot of different missions of their own, and try to encompass and embrace as many voices as we could in that," Brennan said in her interview.
"I think that her knowledge of the BTI, for example, was important, because that's going to play a role in the questioning that we did on funding. And she had some interesting insights, I think on how to use that," said Irvin. "And in addition, I just thought her style was important.
"She didn't need to rush into an answer. She was willing to take a minute to think about how she wanted to move on and she did."
In her interview, Brennan was asked her plans to help expand funding opportunities since the financial structure is mainly grants and the government has recently been withdrawing some interest.
"With Berkshires Tomorrow already established, I would like to see us take a closer look at that and find ways to refine its statement of purpose, to develop a mission statement, to look at ways that that mechanism can help to diversify revenue," she said. "I think, that we have over the last several years, particularly with pandemic response efforts, had our movement to the potential of Berkshire's Tomorrow as a tool that we should be using more, and so I would like to see that be a big part of how we handle the volatility of government funding."
Member John Duval said she has excelled in her role over the years.
"Laura just rose above every other candidate through her preliminary interview and her final interview, she's been the assistant executive director for maybe a couple of years and definitely had that experience, and also being part of this BRPC, over several years, have seen what she's capable of doing, what she's accomplished, and embedded in meetings and settings where I've seen how she's responded to questions, presented information, and also had to deal with some tough customers sometimes when she came up to Adams," said Duval.
"She's done an excellent job, and then in the interviews she's just calm and thought through her answers and just rose above everyone else."
Buck Donovan said he respected all those who applied and said Zogg is a strong candidate.
"I think both and all candidates were very strong, two we ended up were extremely strong," he said. "Jason, I liked his charisma and his way. I really could tell that there was some goals and targets and that's kind of my life."
The full commission will meet on Thursday, March 19, to vote on the replacement of retiring Executive Director Thomas Matuszko.
In a time of federal funding uncertainties, community members are encouraged to maintain preventative health care, such as doctor visits. click for more
The administration will present a draft fiscal year 2027 budget on March 11, and has been focused on equitably distributing resources based on need while bridging a $4 million funding gap without layoffs.
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