Massachusetts transportation

Daniska grew up in Norwich, graduated from St. Bernard

planner named Norwich assistant city planner.

Norwich — A Worcester, Mass., transportation planner and Norwich resident has been selected as the assistant city planner, a position restored this year after it was cut from the city budget several years ago.

Daniel Daniska, 38, an alternate member of the Commission on the City Plan until he was announced as the new assistant planner Tuesday, will start working Feb. 4 at an initial salary of $61,110.

“I’ve always been a passionate supporter of the city and enjoyed serving as a community volunteer on the commission,” Daniska said Tuesday. “When this position opened up, I thought it was a great fit to help Norwich move in a positive direction.”

Daniska has been the transportation planner for the Central Massachusetts Regional Planning Commission in Worcester for the past seven years. The commission serves Worcester and 30 surrounding towns. Prior to that, he worked as a transportation planner for the Memphis, Tenn., Metropolitan Planning Organization.

Daniska grew up in Norwich and graduated from St. Bernard High School in 1998. He earned a bachelor’s degree in art history at Providence College and a master’s degree in city and regional planning at the University of Memphis.

Daniska said he returned to Norwich in 2012, when he started working in Worcester, and has been on the Commission on the City Plan since 2013.

He and city Planner Deanna Rhodes announced his appointment to the commission Tuesday night during its regular meeting.

“I told them I’ll be doing more talking and less voting,” Daniska said Wednesday.

Rhodes said she was unaware that Daniska had applied for the position until his name appeared on the vetted list of finalists who scored highest on the city’s application test which was given by the city’s human resources department. Rhodes said she interviewed all five of those finalists and said Daniska stood out among the five “excellent candidates.”

Rhodes said he has been working as a volunteer with the city planning and public works departments on a “Complete Streets” policy and on a plan to create bicycle routes throughout the city.

She cited Daniska’s experience in working with the public and his willingness to learn the environmental planning and inland wetlands enforcement regulations, which will be part of his duties.

“He is enthusiastic about the city,” Rhodes said. “He has the personality and the qualities you would look for in filling the assistant planner position.”