East Longmeadow Selectmen fill vacancy in Town Clerk’s Office

Date: 12/18/2014

EAST LONGMEADOW – The Board of Selectmen approved various town government appointments at its Dec. 9 meeting, including a part-time position in the Clerk’s Office and two Housing Authority positions.

The board voted to approve Melissa Theberge for a part-time position in the Clerk’s Office after a recommendation to the board from Town Clerk Thomas Florence.

Selectman Angela Thorpe said 22 applicants initially applied for the position, several of which were residents. The board interviewed seven candidates before narrowing that number down to three finalists who were interviewed by the board Dec. 9.

“Some people may say, ‘It’s a part-time position and why are we doing it on camera?’ Well, this person will probably see most of you in town,” Thorpe added. “When you come to pay your tax bills; if you have questions, and it’s almost like a little introduction to them.”

Theberge, a resident of Agawam with family in East Longmeadow, said she graduated in 2010 from Assumption College in Worcester with a degree in business management and since then has opened several restaurants.

“For me, I could call it a lifetime of customer service [experience],” she added. “I started very young in the restaurant business and it was always front of the house, whether it was answering the phone or going to customers and talking with them.”

In the work environment, Theberge described herself as “happy-go-lucky” with a passion for talking with people and her job.

“You always have to put your stress aside so that you can alleviate [a customer’s] stress and make the best of the situation,” she added. 

Thorpe asked Theberge to list situations encountered during a stressful workday from the greatest priority to the least, such as computer problems and an urgent memo from a department head.  

Theberge stated that the top priority would be to talk with a customer at the front desk, followed by a department head’s urgent memo. The item that she identified as the least urgent was computer problems.

“The customer always comes first and you don’t want to leave them waiting too long, whether you go over and just say, ‘I’ll be over in just a moment,’ just to make sure that they know that they have been accounted for,” Theberge added.

The other candidates interviewed for the position included Kerry Dowd, a town resident, and Kerry Kervick.

Board of Selectmen Chair Paul Federici told Reminder Publications the Housing Authority opening was initially for one position but two positions were found to be available during the board’s meeting.

The board voted 2 to 1 in favor of the appointment of Rocco Carabetta and James Moriarty for housing authority positions, which Thorpe voted against. 

Thorpe said the housing authority position had been open for more than a year.

“It really bothers me because whenever there’s a position open on any of the board’s, we want to make sure that we can get someone there as soon as possible so that we can help them continue with their daily business,” she added. “However, if we don’t know if there’s an opening there, then we don’t have the tools to go ahead and get things taken care of.

“That [additional] position was not advertised,” she continued. “And there were some other folks that were interested but they saw that it was one position. And I do believe, that if it was advertised as two positions, then would have had more people applying and I feel that what happened tonight was unfair.”

In other business, the board agreed to host a public hearing at a future meeting and to contact the Board of Health and the Recreation Department regarding a smoking ban proposal for all public parks and playgrounds within the town.

Amy Lyn Delgado, a resident of Springfield, proposed the smoking ban.

“I have watched as people in [Heritage Park] sit at the tables in the play area and smoke while others line the fences and light up, leaving people who are entering the area to walk with their children through a cloud of cigarette smoke,” she stated in a Nov. 6 letter to Selectman and Board of Health Chair William Gorman. “I see the issue of smoking in the playground to be a large public health issue.”

“I understand the potential risk but I also know that we represent all the taxpayers and we want to hear from everyone without being exclusionary,” Federici added.