Announcing his 2022 retirement, Shepeluk outlines ‘transformational’ proposal

Dec. 7, 2021  |  By Lisa Scagliotti 

At Monday night’s Waterbury Select Board meeting, Municipal Manager Bill Shepeluk gave a year’s notice that he plans to retire at the end of 2022. 

At Monday night’s Waterbury Select Board meeting, Municipal Manager Bill Shepeluk gave a year’s notice that he plans to retire at the end of 2022. 

In March, it will be 34 years that Shepeluk has held the position that he described as having been “a tremendous opportunity” for his career as a public administrator that began 40 years ago in Island Pond. 

“I’ve loved almost every minute of my job here,” he said, recalling Tropical Storm Irene in 2011 and the demanding decade of recovery since then. 

Shepeluk’s announcement came during a joint session between the select board and the trustees of the Edward Farrar Utility District, the entity that runs the water and wastewater departments since the dissolution of the village government several years ago. 

Shepeluk used the combined meeting of the two governing boards to also lay out a proposal he has for some major restructuring of local government aided by federal funding heading to the community via the federal American Rescue Plan Act. 

Waterbury is expected to receive just over $1.5 million in the relief funds, Shepeluk said. “These federal funds that are being made available to Waterbury have the potential to be transformational for our community. We have to be willing to think outside the proverbial box and we should be willing to do things that ‘have never before been done that way here,’” he said.

Shepeluk then laid out a proposal that would direct federal funds to the utility district and the Ice Center of Washington West. Ultimately the utility district could be dissolved with its assets including multiple loan funds and property moving to town oversight. 

Shepeluk outlined a myriad of steps that could involve forgiving or restructuring debt owed by the ice center to the municipality and a future for more recreation development in the vicinity of the rink property now under the utility district’s ownership. 

This was the first time that members of both boards had heard the proposal. Shepeluk said he wanted to share it with both groups at the same time. Some elements may be addressed at March Town Meeting, he suggested, with other steps coming during the course of his final year in his position. 

Shepeluk also suggested that members of the boards whose terms expire soon consider running for re-election to help manage the upcoming transitions. In March, three seats on the select board are up for election: one-year seats held by board Chair Mark Frier and member Katie Martin, and Mike Bard’s three-year position. 

Shepeluk said he would work in the coming weeks with both boards on the details of his proposal to determine next steps. 

“I am convinced if we do these things, our community will operate more effectively and will be able to achieve a greater good at lower cost,” he said.