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Date: 5/7/2015
EAST LONGMEADOW – Now that Town Administrator Nick Breault has been appointed as Wilbraham’s new town administrator, the Board of Selectmen have begun looking for an interim town administrator.
At its April 28 meeting, the board voted to place advertisements for the interim position in The Reminder and the Springfield Republican, as well as on the Massachusetts Municipal Association’s (MMA) website.
The MMA job listing reads that the term is anticipated to start “on or about June 1,” which is when Breault will begin his new position in Wilbraham. The applications are due by May 12 at noon and the board would likely begin interviewing candidates at its meeting later that day.
Board of Selectmen Chair Paul Federici said thus far, four candidates have approached the town regarding the interim position. One of the interim position candidates is a “future retiree” who could only work three days a week.
He added that the board could host a special meeting during the third week of May to interview potential final candidates for the interim position.
“There’s three that have contacted the office and have interest and one that you and I have not had a chance to speak about, but I’ve spoken with sort of an internal type of candidate,” Breault said to Federici.
Federici said an interim town administrator would allow the town “not to rush into a decision” to appoint Breault’s successor.
“You’re going to get a ton of [applicants],” he added. “We’re going to have to whittle them down in a theoretical New York minute.”
The board also unanimously voted to not allow the interim to be chosen as the new town administrator.
In other business, the board officially established the Brown Farm Committee and appointed Recreation Director Colin Drury, Planning Board member Ralph Page, and Heather Cunningham, founder of the Friends of the Brown Farm, a citizen led group, to the committee.
The Brown Farm property is a 253-acre parcel of land that was purchased by the town for more than $1 million in 2009 for open space. Thus far, the property has hosted the East Longmeadow Community Gardens and is anticipated to host summer 4-H programs.
Breault said the task of the Brown Farm Committee would be to generate ideas about usages for the property to bring to the Board of Selectmen. At the Selectmen’s Feb. 4, 2014 meeting, the idea for the committee was initially brought forward. However, since that time the board had not officially voted to establish the committee.
Drury later told Reminder Publications the committee has been working during the past year to create “multiple stage plans for the property” ranging from six to 12 months.
“Over the past year I’ve proposed a list of programs to Selectman [Angela] Thorpe for the property and the other thing is I’ve been working with the local Eagle Scouts to actually do a full trail system inside Brown Farm,” he added.
Drury said proposed Recreation Department programs include hiking, nature education to snow shoeing and cross country skiing.
“On our town website we do already list it as open space and recreation for the committee, but we’re looking actually within the next six months to launch a full program suite for the property, mostly leisure [and] passive recreation,” he added.
This summer and fall, Drury said he hopes local Eagle Scouts would have trails mapped and ready for winter programming. The Recreation Department’s winter programs listings will be published in late August.
“If you have trails you can do 100 programs,” he noted. “It could be nature education. It could be bird watching. It could be anything, but that’s what I feel the Recreation Department does not serve is the leisure [and] recreation person.”
Drury noted that he would “absolutely” be willing to work with the Friends of the Brown Farm to bring programs and activities to the Brown Farm property.