Callahan to leave Millville post
MILLVILLE – Town Administrator Jennifer M. Callahan will be stepping down to take a new job as the town manager in Oxford, Mass.
Callahan, one of three finalists for the Oxford position, was formally offered the job by the Oxford selectmen following her interview with that board Tuesday night. Callahan accepted the job offer, but said an employment agreement has not yet been negotiated and therefore a start date has not been determined.
Callahan was selected over two other finalists – Southbridge Town Manager Ronald S. San Angelo and former Aquinnah town administrator Adam Wilson. She will replace former Oxford Town Manager Brian M. Palaia, who resigned in April.
Oxford has a population of about 13,709 and is located in south central Massachusetts, bordered by Dudley and Charlton on the west, Leicester and Auburn on the north, Millbury and Sutton on the east, and Douglas and Webster on the south. Oxford is about 14 miles south of Worcester.
Callahan, Millville’s first-ever town administrator, was making $72,000 a year in Millville. The salary range for the town manager position in Oxford was advertised between $115,000 and $135,000.
“One of the reasons this opportunity has presented itself professionally to me is because of the many successes Millville has achieved by working together,” Callahan said yesterday. “I truly love the people of this town. However, this offer was unexpectedly presented to me last evening and there are more steps which I must work out, including an actual employment agreement before making a transition to Oxford.”
“I intend to ensure a smooth transition and this will take some time,” she added. “I will work closely with staff and the board to complete major initiatives over the weeks to come.”
“Ms. Callahan will be sorely missed,” said Millville Selectmen Chairman Joseph Rapoza. “I appreciate her devotion to Millville and the financial resources she was able to bring to the town. I can’t say enough about what she has been able to contribute in such a short amount of time and how much of herself she put into the job.”
“She has accomplished so much in such a short period time,” added Selectwoman Jennifer Dean Wing. “We are sad to see her go and we wish her the best of luck in her future endeavors.”
Callahan was appointed in June 2016 as Millville’s first professional town administrator after town voters agreed to create the $70,000-a-year position. For years before that, the town had an executive secretary that assisted the Board of Selectmen.
The selectmen had been mulling the establishment of a town administrator po-
sition for the past few years, and it was one of the main recommendations in a financial management review drafted by the Massachusetts Department of Revenue’s Division of Local Services.
Callahan, 53, served on Sutton’s long range planning committee, school committee, and board of selectmen. From 2003 to 2011 she represented the 18th Worcester district in the Massachusetts House of Representatives. She was defeated in the Nov. 2, 2010, general election. While serving in the House, Callahan was also an assistant professor in the graduate school of nursing at the University of Massachusetts Medical School.
Callahan attended public school in Sutton and Notre Dame Academy, a private, all-girls Roman Catholic high school in Worcester. Callahan earned a B.S. and B.A. At Boston University and a Masters of Public Health and a Doctorate in High Education Policy Research and Administration from the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Prior to becoming a state legislator, Callahan worked as a registered nurse.
She is the founding Director of Holidays with Heart Farm to Family Hunger Relief Program, and a member of the Central Massachusetts Labor Council, Massachusetts Nurses Association, and the National Conference of State Legislators.
During her tenure as Millville’s administrator, Callahan has been credited with helping the town secure millions in state and federal grants, including a $1 million MassWorks grant for the town’s proposed $1.3 million Central Street Improvement project, an ambitious year-long construction project that will include new
roadway reconstruction, sidewalks and drainage improvements and better connectivity to the town center for pedestrians and bicyclists.
Callahan was also instrumental in the project that refurbished the American Legion Hall on Main Street into the town’s new town hall after the existing Longfellow Municipal Center on Central Street was shuttered in the summer of 2016 because of serious structural issues.
She also introduced a strategy to crack down on tax scofflaws and more aggressively collect delinquent taxes and set the wheels in motion to demolish one of the town’s biggest eyesores, the Mug Pub on Main Street.
It was also Callahan who sounded a warning about the town’s longtime practice of balancing the town budget by relying on onetime reserves like stabilization, free cash and surplus, which is a practice frowned upon by the state. Faced with a massive deficit next year, the town pitched a $1.8 million property override to voters back in June, but it was rejected at the polls. As a result, the town has eliminated town trash service, closed the senior center and has turned off many of its street lights to cut costs.
Rapoza said he will be meeting with the town’s finance director, Justin Cole, to see if he is agreeable to taking on a greater administrative role when Callahan leaves.
“We’re not asking him to be the interim town administrator, but to take on a bigger role in the area of town finances and to give us a lot more of his time because our number one priority now is
to get the budget done,” he said. “That’s where all the effort and concentration has to be.”
“We can manage the town hall because we have a very capable staff there but we need a go-to person there at least in the interim and I will be helping in that regard,” said Rapoza, adding he will recommend that Town Clerk Diane Lockwood’s hours, which were reduced to cut costs, be reinstated to help out.
As for how the town plans to replace Callahan, Rapoza said those discussions will begin at the board’s meeting on Monday.
Callahan said the multitude of operational changes the town has implemented over the past two years by
addressing core problems which had built up for more than a decade have been “truly transformative” and will continue to provide the town with the right path forward.
“The employees of this town provide extraordinary public services and have risen to meet so many challenges to help the town maintain stability and improve performance,” she said. “Whether operating out of the police station garage and halls for an entire year after vacating the Town Hall due to safety issues to help save money or working to embrace an innovative One Stop Service Model in a refurbished Town Hall after major technology upgrades and departmental realignment, the employees here are top notch in every way.”
“I have every confidence that these collective successes will continue because the staff and town officials are committed to them,” she said. “The Board of Selectmen have provided the necessary leadership resolve to make so many hard decisions and important changes, including hiring a town administrator. It has been my privilege to help coordinate and implement their leadership priorities and vision for sustainability for the future of this community. I am honored to have worked side by side with them.”