Templeton Coordinator offered Sterling Administrator position
Board of Selectmen vote 2 to 1, contract yet to be finalizedKerry O'Brien
News Staff Writer
STERLING — Templeton Town Coordinator Jeffrey Ritter has been offered the position of town administrator in Sterling after the town’s Board of Selectmen voted 2 to 1 on Wednesday.
Mr. Ritter has been serving as Templeton’s coordinator since 2011 and said he applied for the Sterling position in order to advance his professional career.
“If I’m going to complete my professional career in administration, I’d like to accomplish as much as I can in the time,” said Mr. Ritter prior to Sterling’s decision.
He previously served as town administrator in Hatfield and as assistant town administrator in Harvard.
Sterling’s current town administrator of six years, Terri Ackerman, is planning to vacate the position on Dec. 31, according to the town’s Executive Assistant to the Board of Selectmen, Kama Jayne. A contract and date for Mr. Ritter’s first day has yet to be finalized.
Selectmen Ronald Furmaniuk and Robert Cutler voted for Mr. Ritter over two other applicants — Athol Town Manager Michael Szlosek and Carter Terenzini, the current town administrator in Moultonborough, N.H.
Templeton Board of Selectmen Chairman Jeffrey Bennett said if Mr. Ritter decides to vacate his position, they would begin the process of finding a new coordinator or administrator.
“I’m not surprised they’d offer (the position) to him, he’s a quality individual,” said Mr. Bennett. “Maybe (Sterling’s town administrator) has more authority. (Being a town coordinator) is kind of an odd position to be in. You’re paid to be the top administrator but you can’t make decisions because you have to check with the board. Me looking at it from the outside, it’s kind of an awkward position to be in.”
Earlier this year, Templeton voters approved implementing a town administrator role — a position that yields more authority than a coordinator. The board had been discussing whether to promote Mr. Ritter from coordinator to administrator, before he applied for the position in Sterling.
Our town has grown to a point that we need one person in charge to make the every day decisions that can be made without being rehashed meeting after meeting, before a decision is made. We could have made the decision to make the position Mr.Ritter holds a stronger position, but as usual the BOS got sucked into one crisis after another, and the decision got put on the back burner. Town business goes on every day no matter what is going on and the board needed to make him the Town Administrator, before he was walking out the door. I hope it is not too late for us to keep him, because he has saved us money and he is the best person for this position. Bev.
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