Town administrator submits resignation letter in Millville
Jennifer Callahan leaving post to take similar job in Oxford, Mass.
MILLVILLE – Town Administrator Jennifer M. Callahan has officially tendered her resignation here and will be leaving to start a new job as town manager in Oxford, Mass. on Sept. 23.
Callahan has agreed, however, to make herself available to her former bosses in Millville as a consultant through October so she can help the town with ongoing projects and its efforts to close a massive $300,000 structural deficit and balance the town operating budget.
Callahan, one of three finalists for the Oxford position, was formally offered the job by the Oxford selectmen following her interview with that board on July 31. Callahan accepted the job offer, but did not not officially submit her letter of resignation to the Millville selectmen until after contract negotiations were completed with Oxford.
“It saddens me that you’re leaving, but you did a great job for the town,” Rapoza told Callahan at the board’s meeting Tuesday.
Callahan says she is leaving Millville after nearly three years with mixed emotions.
“It’s been an honor and a privilege to serve this town and to do it faced with such incredible challenges,” she
told the board Tuesday. “I’ve done a lot of different work in my life, from a trauma nurse to a state legislator at the State House, and, bar none, this has been exceptionally challenging over the past two years, but also very rewarding.”
“This town has done remarkable work and is set to continue to do the work that it needs to,” she added. “This town will continue to be on the move and I have great confidence in the town employees and the work that
they do day in and day out. I also have great confidence that this board will continue to do great work and do what’s right by the townspeople.”
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 was appointed in June 2016 as Millville’s first professional town administra-
tor 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 position 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 is 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, National Conference of State Legislators, Sutton Long Range Planning Committee, and the Sutton School Committee.
During her, Callahan has been credited with helping the town secure many state and federal grants, including a $1 million MassWorks grant for the town’s Central Street Improvement project.