Colson chosen as new DPW head
Date: 3/7/2012
March 7, 2012By Debbie Gardner
debbieg@thereminder.comWEST SPRINGFIELD — Less than a month after the official retirement of longtime Department of Public Works (DPW) Director Jack Dowd, that department is welcoming a new man at the helm.
Mayor Gregory Neffinger announced on Feb. 28 that Robert J. Colson of Russell has accepted the position of DPW Director.
Colson, formerly an assistant plant manager with Lane Construction of Westfield, was slated to assume his new position on March 5. Among the qualifications Neffinger said made Colson a standout for the job is a bachelor of science degree in engineering management from Clarkson University in New York. His starting salary is listed as $87,915.
Neffinger, who said the 47-year-old Colson was selected from a field of five finalists, was confident that he would quickly prove to be an asset to the town. He cited Colson's background in managing 100 employees and a budget of $25 million, plus experience unifying three unions while with Lane, as well as his introduction of cost estimating and other software programs to the company, as strengths that would serve West Springfield well now and in the future.
"He has a proven track record of bringing efficiencies into Lane Construction and we are hoping that experience will bring some modernization to the DPW," Neffinger said, adding that Colson introduced the first job tracking software program to Lane while with the company.
"I'm looking forward to keeping the DPW moving in a positive direction," Colson told Reminder Publications in a telephone interview from a Lane job in upstate New York. "I'm looking forward to a long and productive career [with West Springfield]."
As a former resident, Neffinger said the new DPW Director also brings to the job a familiarity with the town's roads. In addition, because Lane has been involved in several state-run construction projects in West Springfield, the mayor noted Colson also possesses a familiarity with both Massachusetts Department of Transportation and municipal project procedures.
Colson confirmed he's "consistently done [paving] work in town for the past 24 years," including serving as Lane's project manager on the recent re-paving of Route 20 from the Westfield line to King's Highway.
Neffinger said he felt Colson's experience working with job tracking and cost estimating software while with Lane would "be good for capital planning" and dovetailed with work he has had been doing with Michele Cabral, an efficiency expert he hired as a temporary town employee to help streamline procedures at the DPW.
Neffinger did note that Colson would have "some adjustment, of course, to the procedures we have here," including adding the responsibility of overseeing the town's Water Department, but that "he will have the department heads, the office manager and the town engineer [as] his resources" during the transition.
