BELLOWS FALLS, Vt. – At Tuesday night’s Rockingham Selectboard meeting, held at the Rockingham Town Hall lower theater meeting room, Selectboard Chair Peter Golec introduced the interim town manager, Alex Torpey. Torpey is the former town manager of Hanover, N.H.
Golec reported that town officials met with Torpey earlier that day “to update Alex on all the good things and the bad that are happening. He left the meeting with a stack of papers ‘that high,’” Golec said, indicating a tall stack of paperwork. “So, we’ll try to be easy on him tonight.”
“I appreciate the opportunity to work with all of you,” Torpey told the board. “I’ve a fun time so far today meeting [some of] the staff.”
Torpey said he was in a “downloading phase” as he tries to get a fuller understanding of the town’s needs and priorities. “Basically, my job over the interim period,” Torpey explained, “is to work on the urgent and important stuff, and push the other stuff so that the manager that you hire in a few months has the ability to come in and make those decisions with department heads and staff.” Torpey assured the board that he was there to “keep the business running and support the boards,” and not to make any big changes.
Moving down the agenda, Golec announced that he met with Jarrod James, director of the Rockingham Recreation Center in Bellows Falls, to discuss the issue of mold at the center. Golec said they toured the whole building and found minimal evidence of mold, which was removed by James using an all-purpose cleaner.
There was a brief discussion about what could be done to increase revenue at the recreation center, including a potential tier pricing program mentioned by Torpey.
Development director Gary Fox announced the public hearing scheduled for Jan. 20, at 5 p.m., pertaining to the environmental cleanup at the former paper mill located in the TLR Buildings in Bellows Falls. The hearing will take place prior to the selectboard meeting set for that evening. “The documents will be available in the town clerk’s office as of this Friday [Jan. 9],” said Fox.