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Date: 11/9/2021
NORTHAMPTON – David Pomerantz, Northampton’s longtime director of Central Services, announced his retirement after 15 years with the city. The retirement officially goes into effect Dec. 31.
Pomerantz, who was first appointed director back in 2007, told Reminder Publishing that the job of Central Services is to oversee grounds, maintenance, heating and cooling, plumbing and electrical, energy management, security, custodial, supply purchasing and renovations and construction for six school facilities and 20-plus buildings on the city side, as well as lighting throughout the city – which is now LED.
For the most part, except for larger construction projects, Central Services conducts all their business in-house with the staff they have now, which amounts to about 55 people. “The department is also responsible for the maintenance side of the parking division,” said Pomerantz. “The parking division is divided between enforcement, maintenance and construction.” Pomerantz handles the maintenance and construction side. There are seven municipal parking lots and two parking garages, as well as multi-service parking spaces on the streets, that Central Services is responsible for.
Over the past couple of years, Central Services has also made changes to ventilation so airflow could be increased due to the impacts of COVID-19, particularly in schools when students had to return to in-person learning.
“All of the renewable energy conservation programs to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions come out of this department,” added Pomerantz. “It’s really a multi-faceted department.”
Central Services was officially formed in 1997 under forward-thinking leadership that decided to combine school maintenance and city maintenance to help reduce costs and make operations more efficient. “There aren’t a lot of municipalities that run a dual program like this,” said Pomerantz. “In my almost 15 years here, we’ve expanded a lot of our operations in certain areas, as well as solidified and introduced some new programs.”
Pomerantz said he is happy where the department is at in its current state, but he added that it is time to move on to his next chapter in life. “For me, it’s been a great run,” said Pomerantz. “Really dedicated city employees and departments that I got to work with. It’s a forward-thinking, dedicated community of people, businesses and local government.”
Over the past year and a half, Pomerantz sat on an emergency management team that took calls with the mayor to figure out plans for distributing meals and supplies for the homeless population during COVID-19, as well as creating a shelter at the high school, among other issues that had to be addressed throughout the pandemic.
Pomerantz has an educational background in city planning and urban design, which are two career paths he pursued for a “number of years.” He then shifted to construction management, where he set up a construction company that he managed and ran for 25 years, mainly dealing with residential work.
In 2004, he took his previous experience in planning and construction up to the Northfield Mount Hermon School in Gill where the school’s trustees voted to consolidate their two campuses-Northfield and the Gill campus-into one school to cut costs and improve efficiencies. Pomerantz was the construction manager that was hired to work with planned facilities. He spent three years helping them smoothly transition into the one campus. Outside of construction work, Pomerantz also assisted with facilities management. The Northampton position came along shortly after in 2007.
“I’ve been able to take my experience and build on what I’ve done previously, which has gotten me to where I am now,” said Pomerantz.
With all his planning, construction, and emergency management experience, Pomerantz said that he is planning to help municipalities and regions deal with climate impacts through a consulting business in the next chapter of his life. “I’m still trying to figure out exactly how that’s going to shake out, but it’s important to me to address climate impacts and help communities increase their resilience,” said Pomerantz. “I’m excited for it and looking forward to seeing what the next chapter is going to be.”
According to the Northampton website, the city will begin recruiting for the director position immediately to replace Pomerantz, and Mayor David Narkewicz will be working with Mayor-elect Gina-Louis Sciarra and Pomerantz on finding a successor before the year is over.
“I tell people that Central Services is the veins and arteries of the city,” said Pomerantz. “There isn’t much that goes on, both inside and outside of municipal operations, that we’re not involved in one way shape or form.”