Changes underway in Waterbury town management
April 30, 2022 | By Lisa Scagliotti Changes to management of Waterbury town government are underway as the search for the next municipal manager officially has begun and the Select Board has created an assistant municipal manager position.
Meeting jointly last week, the Waterbury Select Board and the commissioners of the Edward Farrar Utility District agreed to contract with the Vermont League of Cities and Towns to assist with the search for a successor to Municipal Manager Bill Shepeluk who plans to retire at the end of the year. It will be the first time in more than three decades that the town has sought a new manager as Shepeluk took the position in 1988.
The Select Board also approved expanding the municipal staff, promoting Recreation Director Nick Nadeau to Assistant Municipal Manager for Community Services. The move gives Nadeau, who recently completed a doctoral degree program, additional responsibilities. He has been assigned to be administrator for the $1.5 million federal American Rescue Plan Act funds allocated to Waterbury, for example.
The town is advertising for a newly created full-time position of program coordinator for the Recreation Department to plan and run recreation programming.
The process to choose the League of Cities and Towns to assist with the town manager search involved two members of the Select Board and the utility district’s Board of Commissioners. The boards discussed and agreed to create the formal Municipal Manager Search Committee that will work with a consultant from the league.
On that committee will be two select board members – Mike Bard and Dani Kehlmann – and two utility district commissioners – Skip Flanders and Natalie Sherman. Each board also named an alternate: Roger Clapp from the select board and Lefty Sayah from the utility district board.
The two boards also agreed that the committee’s fifth member would come from the Library Commission which would be asked to appoint someone along with an alternate.
The meetings of the search committee will be public meetings with agendas and minutes posted on the town website. The group did not set a meeting schedule yet.
Both boards approved an agreement for $7,250 with the Vermont League of Cities and Towns. The search committee will oversee recruiting candidates for the position and presenting finalists for the Select Board to interview and choose from later this year.
In another joint matter, both boards unanimously signed off on a Memorandum of Understanding whereby the staffing and space needed for utility district management would in perpetuity continue to be part of the municipal administration within the town offices.
The agreement signals steps underway as local officials move toward merging the utility district within town government operations.
The Edward Farrar Utility District was established in 2018 when the Village of Waterbury municipality was dissolved. The district’s main function is to manage the municipal water and wastewater systems.
Shepeluk has suggested formally incorporating the utility district into town government to eliminate the separate municipal entity as it currently is set up. It ultimately would result in the town having a water and wastewater department.
Initial steps toward that end have also begun. Voters in the utility district at their annual meeting May 11 will consider turning over to the town several parcels of land previously under the purview of the village government and two loan funds established under the village’s management. Neither the property nor the loan funds are related to the operations of the water and sewer utilities.
Recreation master plan
On Town Meeting Day, voters approved spending up to $50,000 for recreation master planning for Hope Davey Park in Waterbury Center and for the 40 acres of recreational land in downtown Waterbury near the Ice Center. The goal is to create a plan to address protecting natural resources and envisioning future recreational uses in both areas.
The Select Board approved issuing a request for proposals for firms that could assist with that effort with the goal for the planning project to be finished in December. A committee will be appointed to work with the consultant that is hired. The board discussed how that group could include representatives of various recreational activities associated with both park areas but it did not specify the membership of the steering committee at this time.
The detailed request for proposals is posted on the homepage of the town website, waterburyvt.com.
Appointments made
The Select Board last week also approved appointments to a number of positions on town commissions and committees.
Billy Vigdor to a four-year term on the Conservation Commission ending April 30, 2026
Mary Koenn to the Planning Commission; Harry Shepard, Alex Tolstoi and Patrick Farrell all to the Development Review Board; Phoebe Pelkey to the Recreation Committee; Barbara Blauvelt to the Tree Committee. All of these are three-year terms ending April 30, 2025.
Michael Bard to a two-year term on the Central Vermont State Policy Advisory Board ending April 30, 2024.
Steve Lotspeich as tree warden and representative to the Central Vermont Regional Planning Commission and the regional planning commission’s Transportation Advisory Committee; Alec Tuscany to the Mad River Resource Management Alliance board. Those positions are for one year ending April 30, 2023.
The board still has a Planning Commission vacancy to fill. They will interview candidate Dana Allen at Monday’s meeting.
The Waterbury Select Board meets at 7 p.m. Monday both in person at the municipal offices at online via Zoom. The agenda and remote link are posted online.