From Town Manager Susan George in the latest edition of the Woodsider, the town's newsletter:

Planning Director Hope Sullivan has been promoted to Assistant Town Manager and her realm of responsibility has been expanded to include all Town functions related to the building/development process in Town. Both the Development Services Engineer and the Town Geologist have been reassigned and now report directly to her.

The Planners, Building Inspectors, and Project Managers will continue to report to her. Her mission with this promotion is to unify the efforts of the staff in processing and issuing permits and to make the process more coherent for her department’s many customers.

Second, the Town has added a new staff member, Gratien Etchebehere (Gras), to serve as a Community Preservation Officer -- the “go to” person for alleged violations of the Municipal Code. The responsibility for code compliance was formerly spread out among several staff members, with no one shepherding cases along from start to finish. It was often confusing as to who was handling which cases.

Gras’ addition not only improves the way we deal with code compliance, but provides needed resources to be timelier in our response to complaints. Gras is also a member of Hope’s team.