Reporter’s Notebook: The next Grafton town administrator has been interviewed (we hope)
There were multiple hirings on the Select Board’s agenda Tuesday night, but the big news came after the late arrival of member Ed Prisby.
“I am pleased to tell you I have met with our next town administrator,” Prisby said. “I just can’t tell you who it is yet.”
Prisby, the Select Board’s representative on the Town Administrator Screening Committee, missed the start of the meeting due to the final interviews with TA candidates. Grafton has been without an administrator since parting ways with former Town Administrator Tim McInerney in July. Temporary Town Administrator Carter Terenzini has filled the role since August.
The committee meets again Thursday to winnow its list down to three or four finalists, whose names will be forwarded to the Select Board for further judging.
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The Select Board did fill another open spot in the Town Administrator’s office, hiring William Blake (pictured above) for the new position of management analyst and communications specialist.
After the September resignation of Assistant Town Administrator Rebecca Meekins, the Select Board, under the recommendation of Terenzini, the post was replaced, at a lesser salary range, by a management analyst and communications specialist, shuffling some of the responsibilities and pay to the new finance director post.
“This is a most challenging position to fill,” Terenzini wrote in recommending Blake, who was chosen from 41 applicants. “The combination of part social butterfly and part data nerd is a rare commodity, but we were blessed with a very tough decision between candidates
of varying but overall equal strengths. I think you will find in Mr. Blake that combination of baseline skills, the personal characteristics allowing us to move the culture of the organization to a deeper embrace of public engagement, and — in addition to a passion for public service — the ability to rapidly grow into the areas where they may have lacked the initial skills we need.”
Blake, a Salem State University graduate who is pursuing his duel masters in public administration and political science at Suffolk University, has worked for the past five years at the Scottish Rite Valley of Boston as an administrative assistant and webmaster for the Masonic organization. He also interned in the governor’s office and in town administrator’s office in Acushnet.
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Grafton’s seniors now have a new van driver.
Michael DiVitto, a retired Uxbridge patrol officer and former professional driving school instructor, will work as a part-time driver for the Council on Aging van, working a maximum of 19 hours a week. He will start on January 4, 2021 with a salary of $14.25 per hour, paid through the WRTA and the State Formula Grant.
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Mark R. Rivard was affirmed as the Grafton Police Department’s new full-time public safety dispatcher. He was an emergency appointment by Police Chief Normand Crepeau earlier this month following the return of Nancy D’Auteuil to part-time status.
Rivard has served as a part-time dispatcher in Grafton and has worked full-time in dispatch in both Mendon and Millville for 17 years.
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One final note: among the viewers of the Select Board Zoom session was someone who identified themselves as “Zoom Bomb.” While Select Board member Colleen Roy called out the Zoom de plume with some alarm, any intent to disturb the meeting was thwarted, since the audience does not have the ability to do anything besides raise their virtual hand.
