SOUTH HADLEY — The Select Board is one step closer to appointing a new town administrator after finalists for the position were announced Tuesday evening.
At the Select Board’s regular meeting, the firm Community Paradigm Associates — which conducted the town’s search for a new town administrator — presented two finalists for the board’s consideration. The candidates are Stuart Beckley, the current town administrator in Ware who previously served as city planner in Easthampton, and Alan Wolf, the current chief of staff to Northampton Mayor Narkewicz and the former interim chief of staff in Easthampton.
Current Town Administrator Michael Sullivan has announced he will be retiring when his contract expires on June 30. Working a four-day workweek in his final year in office, the former Holyoke mayor and Maynard town administrator is being paid a $119,000 salary in his final year. He previously earned $129,999.
The Select Board will now conduct interviews with its two candidates, which will take place during public meetings next week on Tuesday and Wednesday at 6 p.m.
Beckley has been town administrator in Ware since 2012. He previously served as town planner, and later city planner, in Easthampton from 1989 to 2012. During much of his time in Easthampton, he was also a planning consultant at the firm Mullin & Associates.
Wolf has worked as chief of staff in Northampton since 2019 and served as interim chief of staff in Easthampton from 2018 to 2019. He has worked in the private and nonprofit sectors, most recently as COO of the nonprofit Verité and head of marketing and business development at the creative agency Last Call Media.
Community Paradigm Associates had originally selected four finalists to appear before the Select Board, but the firm’s founder Bernard Lynch told the board Tuesday that two finalists had pulled out of the process after being named finalists. That is not an uncommon occurrence, he noted.
At Tuesday’s meeting, the Select Board also voted to name its chairperson, vice chairperson and clerk for the year. Jeffrey Cyr was reelected as chairman, Sarah Etelman was reelected as vice chairwoman and newly elected member Carol Constant was voted in as the board’s clerk. All of the votes were unanimous.
Dusty Christensen can be reached at dchristensen@gazettenet.com.