HADLEY — Breaking a recent tradition of having Select Board chairpersons serve one year in the role, David J. Fill II will remain as the board’s chairman.
Despite an appeal from board member Jane Nevinsmith to assume the leadership position, the board voted 4-1, with Nevinsmith casting the dissenting vote, to keep Fill as chairman, following a nomination by Joyce Chunglo, the board’s longest-serving member.
“He just got his feet wet and I think one more year, and then I would like to offer it to Jane for next year,” Chunglo said.
The reorganization came following this week’s town election, with Amy Parsons elected to the five-member board and Chunglo reelected to her seventh, three-year term.
Nevinsmith said she wanted to be considered for the leadership position that has rotated each year, and that doing so would be better for the town so there are new ideas and constant changes.
“The role of the Select Board is to set policy for the town, and the board is guided in its meetings and its decisions by the chair,” Nevinsmith said. “The town benefits from different leadership styles and mine would be different from David’s, and mine would be different from the person who follows me.”
Nevinsmith also cited her work on the building committee for the new senior center.
“I have a track record of organizing and getting large projects done for the town, and I look forward to using my knowledge and skills to leading this board,” she added.
Fill accepted the nomination, saying he wants to remain part of the Hadley Unified Command that has addressed the COVID-19 pandemic and is made up of the emergency management director, school superintendent and members of the Board of Health and Select Board. “I’d just like to continue to work with that group as we round out COVID later this year,” Fill said.
Projects to improve town buildings, and changes to town staffing, are also going to be a focus for Fill.
Waskiewicz supported having Fill staying on as chairman. “You’ve done a good job so far over the past few months, and I’d just like to see you continue,” Waskiewicz said.
Parsons questioned whether the one-year chairmanship was standard protocol. Chunglo said it has not been unusual in her tenure for people to lead the board for multiple years, observing that Guilford Mooring served as the board’s chairman from April 2014 to April 2016. “There’s been a history of people doing two years at a time,” Chunglo said.
Nevinsmith was appointed the board’s clerk, a role that includes filling in as chairwoman when Fill is absent.
The board also named members to serve as liaisons to various departments and committees, with Fill continuing as liaison to the Department of Public Works and the agricultural community, Chunglo staying on as liaison to the police and fire departments and municipal buildings committee, Parsons assuming the liaison role to the schools and the park and recreation department, Nevinsmith being the liaison for general government, conservation and human services, and Waskiewicz the liaison with veterans, Hadley Media and the town library.
Scott Merzbach can be reached at smerzbach@gazettenet.com.
