Editor’s Note: This story is the second in a series regarding what residents should expect in their communities in 2020. Look for stories from Franklin County’s other geographic territories throughout the week.
The two largest towns in southern Franklin County are expected to find themselves with new town administrators in 2020.
Deerfield and Sunderland have extended offers to their top prospects and the elected officials of both hope to wrap up negotiations in the coming weeks. Following public interviews, Deerfield has reached out to Ashfield Town Administrator Kayce Warren to replace Wendy Foxmyn, and Sunderland decided to ask Geoff Kravitz, the economic development director in Amherst, to take the place of Sherry Patch.
The Deerfield Selectboard voted Dec. 27 to enter into negotiations with Warren, who previously served as town administrator in Deerfield. She left about four years ago to take the Ashfield job.
Deerfield Selectboard Chair Trevor McDaniel said he and his peers are impressed with Warren’s experience, and her ability to work with townspeople and department heads. A screening committee received 12 applications and put forth two finalists: Warren and interim Town Administrator Diana Schindler.
“I don’t think it will take too long (to finish negotiations),” McDaniel said. “It’s going to be exciting to have a full-time town administrator.”
Foxmyn, who had been the administrator for about two years, retired in February. Schindler, the former Orange town administrator who served as special projects coordinator in Deerfield, was tapped as Foxmyn’s interim replacement. McDaniel wanted to stick with Schindler, but the other two Selectboard members, Carolyn Shores Ness and David Wolfram, were adamant about offering the job to Warren, who declined to comment, pending negotiations.
According to previous reporting in the Greenfield Recorder, Warren had worked for the town for 17 years, starting in 1999 as an administrative assistant in the Selectboard’s office. She became the executive assistant to the town administrator and the Selectboard, and took the interim town administrator job in February 2014. She was hired as the permanent town administrator the following August.
Meanwhile, in Sunderland, Selectboard Clerk Tom Fydenkevez said Kravitz is the right pick due to his good temperament, his understanding of how a town operates, his ability to listen and his empathy toward residents.
Kravitz, 39, said he hopes to finish negotiations “sometime in the near future,” though he declined to elaborate on when that might be.
“I’ve been interested in municipal government and it’s a community close by that I’m familiar with,” he said.
Kravitz said he has worked as the economic development director in Amherst, where he grew up and still resides, for four years.
The town received nearly $500,000 from the state in 2017 to replace the closed Williamsburg Road bridge, and Town Administrator Brian Domina believes that work will be completed this year.
The Massachusetts Department of Transportation, through its Municipal Small Bridge Program, will pay the project’s $497,000 cost of design and construction. The grant was awarded at the end of March 2017.
A failed inspection in 2010 resulted in closure of the bridge, which spans Sanderson Brook. The inspection “revealed severe section loss and cracks on multiple mid-span beams,” according to the grant application, which was submitted in the fall of 2016. Domina said the closure means people have to take a 8.2-mile detour. The grant application approximated additional travel time at 18.25 minutes.
Domina said the replacement was designed by Tighe & Bond and construction is expected to go out to bid Wednesday. He said state Chapter 90 funding will be used if bids come in over the cost estimate.
The town also expects to reconstruct sidewalks along Chestnut Plain Road and paint new crosswalks as part of a Complete Streets Project, Domina said. Whately received a state grant of roughly $225,000 for the work. Residents at the Annual Town Meeting on April 30, 2019, voted to transfer from free cash $5,000 to “to pay for the design and engineering of sidewalks along Chestnut Plain Road.” Highway Superintendent Keith Bardwell has said the sidewalks will span from the Center School to The Whately Inn.
Also on the itinerary is to combine the town’s two public water systems — a town water department, and a water district Domina has said is a “separate, quasi-public district” that has about 45 customers. He previously said limited water supply, the low number of customers, increasing regulations and increasing operating costs make long-term operation of the water district unsustainable.
The town administrator said the plan is to build a booster station pump house, a small shed-like building to pump water to those roughly 45 customers.
The town hopes to construct a new highway maintenance building by the end of the year.
Residents voted 161 to 32 at a Special Town Meeting in December to take on debt to construct the building next to Conway Grammar School, next to the salt shed. This vote came three days after people agreed to borrow $988,000 for the structure. These votes mean the construction project and the loan needed for it can go out to bid.
The 4,600- to 4,800-square-foot building will have a maintenance bay, a wash bay, an office, a break room and a utility room. Highway Superintendent Ron Sweet previously said the maintenance building will be used to work on Highway Department trucks and other equipment, as well as for washing them.
Sweet said the Highway Department’s trucks and equipment will be kept in a 7,500-square-foot storage shed being built by Kurtz Inc., of Westfield, which is expected to be finished by the end of this month.
This project has been a long time coming for Conway — voters twice rejected a garage proposal in 2014.
Reach Domenic Poli at: dpoli@recorder.com or 413-772-0261, ext. 262.