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Date: 7/20/2022
CHESTER – During one of the last weeks of her tenure as town administrator before assuming the same role in Becket, Katherine “Kathe” Warden was still working on the water situation in Chester on July 14 at the end of a very long week, and was still passing out drinking water to residents.
Warden said the town was waiting for the water to pass two rounds of testing after a water main break was discovered on July 8 that had drained the clear well. Pressure had been restored the previous weekend, but the town was under a boil water mandate until cleared by the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection. Town water passed a test on July 11, but failed on July 12 before passing a second round of tests July 14 and 15, leading to the boil order being lifted.
“This is quite an ordeal. It’s something you don’t expect to happen, but thankfully we have [the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency]. We called them, and we had somebody out here in an hour, non-potable water in three hours, and potable water in five hours,” she said.
Warden explained that the break occurred in the older infrastructure in town, at the site of a 30- to 50-year-old repair.
“We hope it doesn’t happen again, but we need more money. All the rural communities don’t get enough for infrastructure between water and roads. The governor realizes that, and is doing his best to distribute the money, but it’s a long process.” she said.
She said Mark Boomsma of M&M Excavating in Blandford repaired the break.
“They were absolutely fabulous. When I left the dig site, there was a big hole and a big pile of dirt. When I came back a few hours later, the hole was filled in and raked out,” she said, adding, “He and his crew are amazing.”
Warden thanked residents for their patience.
Leaving Chester
Warden has been town administrator in Chester for the past 3 ½ years, since January 2019, but her term of service is coming to an end as she has just accepted the town administrator position in Becket, where she resides. She will be starting in Becket on Aug. 8. The position is now posted on the town website at townofchester.net.
Commenting that it seems as though several towns are looking for administrators, Warden said she believes the role of town administrator is rewarding and important, “even on the crazy, crazy days. I wish I had found out about it in my 20s rather than in my 50s,” she said.
She said not every community has converted to town administrators, and many still supplement their volunteer select board with only an administrative assistant.
“I can see how you can do it, definitely, but the benefit of having a full-time administrator, even 35 or 32 hours, can be searching for grants, and writing to the legislators. Even though it’s a municipality, you’re running big budgets. If you were a business, you wouldn’t be running it with a part-time staff. That’s the hard part to get people to understand,” Warden said.
She said as administrator she is moving the town of Chester forward, and taking 1,258 people’s tax money to do it, “that they really worked hard to get.” She said residents need to have more respect for the people in Town Hall.
Before taking the position in Chester, Warden worked in Hinsdale as an administrative assistant, and before that for 27 years in the waste industry in Connecticut and in Lee, where she grew up.
“[It] teaches you a lot about this job, which is 80 percent customer service, then running the town.”
She said an administrator can’t run the town if he or she can’t help residents with their questions.
Warden thinks that jobs in municipalities should be promoted more as career choices.
“On career days, invite the municipalities, give them their own day. There are so many fields, and salaries are increasing all the time, where you can work for a municipality and make a living wage,” she said.
She is now looking forward to doing that work in the town where she lives. She said Becket doesn’t have a public water system, but the town does have a town beach, and a lot of beautiful lakes.
And “all the communities have the same issues,” Warden said. “Let’s face it, this part of the state is absolutely gorgeous. I love to go for Sunday drives. Whether you’re on Route 2 or 112, you come upon the most amazing wildlife, views, everything else. With all the teleworking going on, it makes it that much more attractive,” Warden said.