After nearly two years of searching, Harvard may finally have its first full-time facilities manager on board by May 1. Assistant Town Administrator Marie Sobalvarro told the Press the town has interviewed a “very promising” candidate and will be extending an offer to him later this week.
The town charter, accepted at Annual Town Meeting in 2018, specifies that the town have a facilities manager for its public buildings. The duties specified include annual inspections, preparing annual repair and maintenance programs, and managing maintenance and repair work. The charter left open the option of including school buildings, but the school administration decided it should continue with its own facilities manager. The charter also allowed the Select Board to combine the building commissioner and facilities manager positions into one full-time position, which the board elected to do.
Should this candidate accept, his appointment would be conditional, since he is not currently state-certified as a building commissioner. Sobalvarro said he is certified as a local inspector and has the construction management experience required by the state for a building commissioner, but he will need to take classes and pass an exam to be certified. She added that after speaking with managers of other towns, she believes that would take anywhere between 18 and 36 months.
It’s been a challenge to find qualified applicants for this new position. Town officials began interviewing in the summer of 2018 and chose the town’s current building commissioner, Gabe Vellante, from its first pool of candidates. However, Vellante, who currently serves as building inspector for Harvard, Ayer, and Devens, said the job should require only two days a week, and was unwilling to accept it full time. After a lengthy period of negotiations with Vellante, the town re-advertised the position.
Sobalvarro said the town has gone through four rounds of interviews. She said a few candidates have had the necessary credentials and experience for the job, but some took jobs in other towns, some thought the salary ($76,757 plus benefits) was not high enough, and others were not a good fit for the town. At one point, Sobalvarro told the Select Board it was like “looking for a unicorn.”
An employee at the Department of Public Works is currently handling repair work in Harvard’s 11 public buildings as needed. Sobalvarro said the town budgeted $100,000 for public building repair in fiscal year 2020, and as of the end of 2019, about $31,000 of that budget remained to be spent.
