Blandford Select Board votes to hire assistant treasurer-collector at $24 per hour

BLANDFORD — February 13, 2023 — Blandford Select Board votes to negotiate with top assistant treasurer-collector candidate after two-candidate interview session. The two-member board — Town Administrator Christopher Connell and member TJ Cousineau, sitting without absent third member Jeff Allen — unanimously authorized opening contract talks with Kara Latender at 24 hours per week and $24 per hour, with the goal of having a trained candidate ready to potentially assume the full treasurer-collector role by the start of FY24. The board also received a sobering update on a planned Town Hall emergency generator project: a new electrical engineering report from consultant Peter Wozniak puts the cost of bringing the building up to emergency management code at roughly $160,000, against approximately $42,000 currently set aside, with Connell pledging to seek MEMA grant funding to close the gap. The board made five additional appointments, including naming interim Fire Chief Adam Doby as both Forest Warden and Emergency Management Director through June 30, 2023.