Use this search box to find articles that have run in our newspapers over the last several years.
Date: 4/26/2021
SOUTH HADLEY – The search for South Hadley’s new town administrator has entered its final stages as the finalists were announced during the April 20 Selectboard meeting.
The meeting began with the board reorganizing and electing their chair and vice chair following the town election. Member Jeff Cyr, who had served as chair before being re-elected to the board, was nominated and voted in unanimously to serve in the position once again. Sarah Etleman was also nominated and voted in unanimously to serve as vice chair, a position she held prior to the election. Newly elected Selectboard member Carol Constant was nominated and voted in unanimously to serve as the board’s clerk.
In an update regarding the town’s COVID-19 cases from Sharon Hart, the town’s health director, she said while community numbers were “going down” and the town had “passed the 1,000 mark.” At the time of the meeting, she said South Hadley had experienced 1,013 cases of COVID-19 with a decrease of 37 cases to just 30 confirmed cases the prior week. Additionally, Hart said there had been some cases of vaccinated individuals contracting COVID-19.
“There was a case that one of the partners had been vaccinated, they were over 75, but their spouse had not been. They had symptoms, mild symptoms, but their spouse who wasn’t vaccinated ended up in the hospital,” she said.
When asked about the vaccination site at the Castle of Knights in Chicopee, Hart said she hadn’t heard anything in regard to the progress of the site. Town Administrator Mike Sullivan said he called “10 days ago” and talked to Chicopee Mayor John Vieu’s chief of staff. He said while she promised to contact him with any updates, he had not received any new information since the call. However, he said he heard recently that “the colosseum in West Springfield is closer to opening as a mass vaccination site,” than the Chicopee location. He added that the Eastfield Mall was continuing to host vaccine appointments in addition to other locations offering appointments as well. Since then, the West Springfield vaccination site has opened.
Sullivan said he felt they were at “a tipping point.” He said, “It’s not as difficult as it was four weeks ago to get a vaccine or get an appointment to get a vaccine, even with Johnson and Johnson out of the mix. But we’re starting to see there is a slower demand from the public.” He added that the town was encouraging people to get the vaccine and it “was going to help us get back to normal faster.”
Etelman said she’d “found her superpower” and had been able to help register about 60 people for vaccine appointments. She added that should people need help finding appointments, she was happy to help, and they can email her at setelman@southhadleyma.gov. Hart added that even those who had contracted the virus should get the vaccine as it produced a stronger immune system response to the virus. This, she said, would help people fight the virus in the future.
Bernie Lynch of the consulting firm, Community Paradigm Associates LLC., who conducted the search for candidates for the town administrator search then presented the finalists to the board. Lynch said a total of 20 applicants had applied for the position with six semi-finalists chosen to interview. The process then narrowed the search down to four candidates, two of whom withdrew from consideration. He said one candidate had withdrawn almost immediately after being notified that they had been selected as a finalist due to the distance, as they lived out of state. Lynch said the other candidate had withdrawn “in the last few days” after family consideration.
The first candidate Lynch presented was Stuart Beckley. Lynch said Beckley had graduated from UMass Amherst with a Masters Degree in regional planning. Currently, he serves as the town administrator in Ware where he started work in 2012 after having previously served as the town/city planner for the City of Easthampton. During his time serving Easthampton, Lynch said he’d also served as a planning consultant for Mullin Associates.
The second candidate presented by Lynch was Alan Wolf. Lynch said Wolf had received his Master’s Degree in business administration from the College of William and Mary. Lynch added that Wolf also holds a certificate from the MMA Suffolk local government certificate program with a focus on municipal administration. Presently, Wolf serves as the chief of staff for the City of Northampton. Prior to working for Northampton, Lynch said he served as the interim chief of staff for the City of Easthampton, a position he left in 2019. Prior to his experience in municipal government, Wolf held several positions in the private sector.
Lynch said Wolf came with “a good mix of management experience, communication experience,” and has worked closely with the business community in Northampton throughout the pandemic and “comes with a lot of energy and ideas regarding innovation that he’s interested to bring into local government.” The next steps in the process, Lynch said, is to discuss interview dates for the candidates and to discuss the process which would be used to decide which candidate to select.
Etelman questioned how one of the candidates ended up as finalist, as she said she felt they were clear in that they wanted a candidate that had previous experience as a town administrator. Lynch, however, argued that both candidates had the experience that the board was looking for in a town administrator. He said there had been town administrators and planners that “had come out of chief of staff” positions.
“In fact, Northampton produced the current town manager for the Town of Longmeadow and a number of other examples. As the chief of staff you’re effectively serving as the chief operating officer, or chief administrative officer, similar to a town administrator would serve,” he said. Lynch added that the difference in the positions were “rather than working for an executive board, you’re working for one individual who is the chief executive officer.”
Ultimately, the board decided that the meetings would take place at 6 p.m. on April 27 and 28. Lynch said he would be in contact with the candidates regarding the availability and be in contact with Cyr. The board then decided they would meet to discuss both candidates and make a decision on April 29 at 7 p.m.
During a discussion regarding the annual town fireworks proposed for Sept. 4, Edelman said she was concerned about the crowd fireworks could draw to the town given the ongoing pandemic. “I’m not comfortable planning something that people are going to be fundraising for, that I’m assuming that there’s going to be some kind of community involvement,” she said. She added that just 14 percent of the community had been vaccinated, and it felt “like we’re asking for trouble.”
Sullivan said the health department also had concerns, but there had been quite a bit of community requests for the town to host the fireworks. He said there were options and should the town host the fireworks around the new year then it would likely not draw as significant of a crowd due to the cold weather. Board member Andrea Miles said should the town vote to host the fireworks they then became responsible and there would be a significant amount of responsibility for the town to plan for the event and enforce social distancing protocols.
Cyr said he was concerned that families from surrounding communities would attend the fireworks and they didn’t know the vaccination rates of those communities. “How do you do contact tracing at fireworks,” he said. Member Chris Gerhaty said he was in agreement and felt as though hosting the fireworks was “inconsistent with our messaging.” Sullivan added that should there be an outbreak of the virus it would threaten the in-person learning status of yet another school year. Ultimately, Sullivan said he would take the concerns of the board to the Parks and Recreation Department and update the board following that discussion.
Sullivan then went on to give an update regarding the Annual Town Meeting discussion. He said the town was advising that the meeting be moved back to June 9 and be hosted in the same drive-in fashion at St. Theresa’s church that they used last year.