Putnam selectmen give town administrator OK to be involved with WPCA.
The board had decided before interviewing for the job that the new town administrator would take a hands-off approach to the WPCA.
“I know when I was hired one of the directions from the Board of Selectmen was that I wasn’t going to have any involvement with the WPCA,” Calorio said.
“Ultimately, the town does have some overall responsibility with the WPCA, and I’m asking permission to get involved in some of that overarching higher level support.” Deputy Mayor Alma Morey agreed if Calorio′s primary role is to improve communication and provide oversight for the town, it makes sense for her to get more involved.
Public Works Director Jerry Beausoleil handles the day-to-day management of the effort and will continue to do so, but the town contracted with Suez in early 2016 to run its water and sewer systems.
Calorio said Suez is essentially a vendor and all vendors need to be supervised and that’s something she should be involved with.
Previous Town Administrator Doug Cutler was highly involved with the WPCA during its six-year transformation, which included an $18.8 million upgrade to the sewer treatment plant, $3.8 million invested in drilling eight new wells to ensure adequate water supply, $15.4 million in new water lines and another $5.04 million for a manganese treatment plant.
The water lines are still in the process of being installed and the manganese treatment plant is about a year away from being completed.
Cutler’s oversight of the WPCA was so detailed a small portion of his salary came from the organization.
“Doug was overly involved in the WPCA,” Mayor Tony Falzarano said.