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Date: 4/17/2023
BELCHERTOWN — Select Board Chair Jim Barry informed the board that the search for the next town administrator may be ending soon.
The Select Board is scheduled to host town administrator interviews with three finalists on Tuesday, April 25, starting at 5 p.m.
Belchertown partnered with the consulting firm Community Paradigm Associates, in conducting the town’s search for its next town administrator.
The firm’s Managing Principal Bernie Lynch and Senior Associate John Petrin from have been in contact with the Select Board to give updates on their search.
Over the last few months, a Town Administrator search committee was constructed to help Paradigm Associates find and interview candidates.
The search committee has met three times with Petrin to discuss the purpose of the committee, prepare questions for the applicants and conduct their initial interviews.
Petrin said he usually puts the candidates in three different pools based on their qualifications and take no more than eight for initial screening.
At its April 10 meeting, Barry was informed by Petrin that there were 20 applications submitted and six to eight of them were interviewed by the committee.
The committee has picked out three finalists to be sent to the Select Board for final interviews.
Each interview time is slotted for about an hour and Petrin and the Select Board are currently preparing questions to ask the finalists.
“Depending how it goes, we might decide then and there that evening we can complete the process,” Barry added.
The background search will be conducted by Paradigm Community Associates on each candidate before they are forwarded to the Select Board.
Barry added that the search committee will not be giving any recommendations on the three finalists they have chosen.