The town has hired a part-time interim employee to help manage the Department of Public Works in the wake of Director Kurt Grassett’s retirement.
The Select Board agreed to contract an employee through Municipal Resources Inc., a company that assists municipalities with locating and hiring employees, to work about 10 hours a week.
The employee will assume the duties of the DPW director, according to Select Board Chair John Jordan. One of the town’s current DPW foremen, Jeff Wright, will have an increase in responsibilities to cover the remainder of Grassett’s duties.
The MRI employee, John MacLean, has experience as a city manager for Keene, as well as having been a DPW director in the past.
The town will pay MacLean $85 per hour to both fill in Grassett’s duties, as well as to assess the structure of the department and the director position and assist the Select Board in crafting a job description for the DPW director.
“It’s a good chance to look at the way we do things, and if anything needs to be updated,” said Jordan. “Kurt Grassett is just terrific, and he took on a lot of extra responsibilities. We need to see what we can do with what we already have.”
MacLean will be paid from Grassett’s salary line for the remainder of the year, according to Jordan, so the budget will not be effected.
The Select Board is hoping to be able to move forward with the hiring process for a permanent Department of public works director in October.
Ashley Saari can be reached at 924-7172 ext. 244 or asaari@ledgertranscript.com. She’s on Twitter @AshleySaariMLT.