The Rochester Select Board held a special meeting on Tuesday afternoon at Town Hall to vote in Ashling McLaughlin as the town’s new full-time treasurer effective Monday, January 8.
“We had number of candidates, and Ashling certainly showed herself to be the best. … She interviewed well, he references were outstanding,” said Town Administrator Glenn Cannon, who was happy to report an enthusiastic recommendation from Mattapoisett Town Administrator Mike Lorenco. “You don’t always get that vibe from the other TA’s.”
McLaughlin had already given the Town of Mattapoisett notice. “I’ve been very transparent with them,” she said.
The contract language makes McLaughlin treasurer for the Town of Rochester until the agreement is revoked by the Select Board.
After serving as Rochester’s treasurer for the last two years and four months, Kory Lydon returned this month to the Town of Duxbury as town treasurer. Lydon had served Duxbury as assistant treasurer for five years prior to coming to Rochester.
In a related vote, Diana Knapp, the town’s payroll administrator, will serve as Rochester’s interim treasurer on a part-time basis through the January 1-7 work week.
The original agreement designated Knapp the assistant treasurer, but Cannon told the board that the bank was not comfortable with that term. “It’s belt and suspenders for me,” said Cannon, who openly considered it less of a hassle to ask the Select Board to revise its terminology than to argue with the bank.
Knapp’s term as interim treasurer will expire when McLaughlin starts.
In his Town Administrator’s Report, Cannon publicly thanked the town’s Department of Public Works, Facilities Manager and Highway Department for its part in responding to storm damage sustained on December 18.
“I know we didn’t get the response we wanted from Eversource, but our crews (did a great job),” said Cannon.
Select Board Chairman Paul Ciaburri was less diplomatic in referring to the “horrible response” from Eversource.
“This storm, they dropped the ball big time,” he said. “The portal they’re using now had the damage on Route 105 as being fixed. It wasn’t even touched. They didn’t even have the tree out of the road.”
Ciaburri twice noted that Eversource had responded well in prior storms and said he spoke to the company’s representatives on December 19.
“The last few years they’ve done a pretty good job with tree trimming,” he said but restated that, “when (the residents) really needed them, they were gone.”
In other news emanating from Cannon’s report to the board, the Rochester Highway Department is the recipient of a Chapter 90 (state) grant in the amount of $190,000 to be used in survey work.
The Council on Aging Senior Center on Dexter Lane has a new custodian, Paul Santos, who will work 15 hours per week. Cleaning needs beyond what Santos can provide in those part-time hours will be hired out.
The Town of Marion will host a Tri-Town Select Board meeting on Tuesday, January 9, at 7:00 pm at the Music Hall on Front Street across from Island Wharf.
Cannon told the board he met with tri-town town administrators to discuss a broadband, infrastructural grant that will not require matching funds but will presumably enable the towns to identify where their signal deficiencies are. The Southeastern Regional Planning & Economic Development District (SRPEDD) will also participate.
Cannon outlined a tentative schedule of Select Board meetings for the 2024 winter, starting with Tuesday, January 2. He suggested the possibility of a short meeting in the days before the Special Town Meeting scheduled for January 22 at Rochester Memorial School.
The board intends to meet on Monday February 5 and possibly on February 20, on March 4 and March 18, on April 1, and on May 15.
The board entered executive session pursuant to Open Meeting Law (Chapter 30, Section 21(a)(2)) to conduct strategy in preparation for negotiations with non-union personnel and did not return to open session.
The next meeting of the Rochester Select Board is scheduled for Tuesday, January 2, at 6:00 pm at the Senior Center on Dexter Lane.
Rochester Select Board
By Mick Colageo