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Del Castilho to whittle down town manager candidates

Date: 12/17/2012

By Chris Maza

chrism@thereminder.com

LONGMEADOW — With the Dec. 10 deadline for interested parties to submit applications for the vacant town manager position, the Select Board will soon determine its next steps in the interview process.

"We don't yet have a schedule," Acting Town Manager Barry Del Castilho said.

Twenty-nine candidates submitted applications for the position, which comes with a salary of $115,000.

Del Castilho will begin the initial vetting process, stating that he hoped to present a list of candidates to the board at its Dec. 17 meeting.

"I am going to make the first string of cuts, based partly on individual input from board members," he said. "I'm going to select about 10 candidates for the first interviews, but those names will not be made public at that time.

"At this stage of things, the reason why I am doing this as opposed to the selectmen is because it is not a critical stage. We are not determining who is No. 2 and who is No. 6. What we're determining is who is No. 10 and who is No. 11 if 10 is in and 11 is out," he continued.

Del Castilho said that he expected the board to discuss the process through which it will interview and narrow down the candidates at its Dec. 17 meeting.

The board's goal is to fill the position by March.

The town manager position has been vacant since June when Robin Crosbie, the first town manager to serve the community since the Town Charter was altered, giving Longmeadow this form of government, left for the same job in Ipswich.

The Select Board has twice made unsuccessful attempts to fill the position.

The board's initial search yielded Bourne Town Administrator Thomas Guerino in August, but the two sides were unable to reach an agreement on a contract.

The board then hosted a second round of interviews with new candidates and voted unanimously to negotiate with Bonnie Therrien, who accepted a position with another community prior to coming to an agreement with Longmeadow.

Del Castilho accepted an interim position as Acting Town Manager, which was offered to him after the board interviewed him, Russell Denver and Joseph Kellogg for the position.