Hartland
The first day of work for Ormiston, 51, who also served as assistant town manager in St. Johnsbury, Vt., and finance coordinator in the village of Barton, is on Monday.
“I am very excited to be working in Hartland,” Ormiston said in an email on Thursday. “It is a wonderful community and I look forward to being a part of it. It is always difficult to follow in the footsteps of someone who has been working there for 20 years” — Town Manager Bob Stacey, who is stepping down this week — “but it also a sign of stability and that says a lot about the Selectboard and the community as a whole.”
Selectboard Chairman Gordon Richardson said the panel this past Monday voted unanimously to hire Ormiston.
The board has a letter of agreement with Ormiston but not a contract, Richardson said, and the length of the new manager’s employment hasn’t been defined by a term.
“He’s well qualified,” Richardson said by phone on Thursday. “He’s had a considerable amount of experience in municipal management and he has a broad range of education that also suits the job nicely. We’re pleased that he is relatively local, coming from Vermont.”
Ormiston, who finished his Norwich job in May, said he planned to relocate from the Northeast Kingdom to the Hartland area for the new position. His starting annual salary will be $73,000, he said.
In Norwich, where he started at $83,000, Ormiston oversaw the planning of a $1.48 million public safety renovations project and, among other work, helped the town secure a roughly $500,000 Federal Emergency Management Agency grant to finance other repairs and renovations.
Ormiston has lived in Vermont for three decades, working as executive director of a waste management district, a sales manager and an accountant before joining municipal government — a diversity of experience that Richardson cited in the Hartland Selectboard’s decision to hire him.
Stacey, in a Thursday email sending out Selectboard agenda information, thanked Hartland residents with some characteristic Vermont humor.
“I’d like to take this opportunity to thank all of you who came out to the reception for me a couple of Saturdays ago. It was heartwarming to see so many Hartland folks. And thank you to all who have stopped by to wish me well in my retirement years,” Stacey said.
“It’s been a pleasure to be able to serve the good citizens of Hartland and I will miss you very much (just don’t call me).”
Rob Wolfe can be reached at rwolfe@vnews.com or 603-727-3242.