SHUTESBURY — Hayley Bolton, who for the past six years has led senior centers in Amherst and Bernardston, is poised to become Shutesbury’s town administrator in April.

“This is the next step in what I’ve been working toward,” Bolton said in phone interview Wednesday, adding that she is looking forward to being part of the Shutesbury community.

Bolton was selected as one of two finalists and interviewed with the Selectboard at its March 6 meeting, where she called the town administrator job the next logical step in her municipal government career.

“I’ve been really interested in progressing to a town manager, town administrative level,” Bolton said.

After an executive session, Bolton was selected over the other finalist, outgoing Templeton Town Administrator Adam Lamontagne.

Following reference checks and contract negotiations for the position that could pay up to $85,000, Bolton will succeed Becky Torres in the role on April 7. Torres left the position after 15 years to become town administrator in Sunderland in November. Since her departure, Gabriele “Gabe” Voelker has served as the interim town administrator.

Bolton, who has been senior center director in Amherst since late 2021, cited her work in the MBA program at Springfield College and completing the Massachusetts Municipal Association’s Suffolk leadership program this spring as supplementing skills she already has. Bolton thanked Amherst Town Manager Paul Bockelman for his guidance in advancing her career.

“I’ve really appreciated the opportunities and experiences here,” Bolton said.

She said she will miss the Senior Center staff, along with interacting with the older adults who have imparted wisdom. She also said she is grateful for support from her working-class family and others in continuing to work in town government.

While she acknowledged she has no experience in contract negotiations, Bolton brings what she termed “adjacent experience” as a department head in building budgets and overseeing three full-time employees and one part-time employee, all of whom she hired, along with coordinating 30 volunteers.

In Bernardston for more than two years, she also had responsibility for maintenance of the building that houses the Council on Aging. A University of Massachusetts graduate, Bolton’s other professional experience includes being food pantry manager at the Amherst Survival Center and staff manager at Craig’s Doors, which oversees the town’s homeless shelter.

Bolton said her first steps in Shutesbury would be to meet as many people as possible, including department heads, committee members and residents, and establish connections with officials in other towns and with the Franklin Regional Council of Governments, with which she already has some familiarity.

“The first 30 to 60 days I want to be meeting people, I want to be analyzing past budgets, looking at bylaws,” Bolton said. “I want to get a pretty concrete sense of where we’re at right now.”

She doesn’t expect to micromanage and wants independent professionals doing the town’s work, along with “lots of active listening.”

“Communication really is mostly listening,” Bolton said.

She appreciates that Shutesbury has long-range plans, including those dealing with climate change.

Bolton said she will wrap up her work in Amherst on March 28, taking a short break before starting in Shutesbury and getting ready for Annual Town Meeting.

Meanwhile, Lamontagne, the other finalist, on March 4 sent a letter resigning from his position in Templeton, citing various reasons, including a hostile work environment, personal legal bills and complaints filed against him, including some related to his job performance, according to an article printed in The Gardner News. He is expected to remain in the position in that Worcester County community through March 17.

Scott Merzbach can be reached at smerzbach@gazettenet.com.