Windsor town manager Tom Marsh to retire after 15 years

WINDSOR — The town is seeking a replacement for Town Manager Tom Marsh who is set to retire next June after leading the municipality for about 15 years.

Marsh, who started his role in August 2011 and is one of the longest serving town managers in the Upper Valley, told the Selectboard about his intentions to retire in May, said Tera Howard, who chairs the board.

“We’re lucky that we’ve had our town manager this long,” Howard said in a phone interview last week. “It’s definitely a huge change. I think he’s done pretty well with Windsor.”

Marsh’s decision wasn’t exactly a surprise: Marsh, who will turn 66 in September, said it was always his plan to retire in Windsor — something he said in an interview at his office last week he was up-front about when the Selectboard interviewed him for the job.

He said he told the Selectboard when he signed a three-year contract that started in 2023 that it would be his last one, Marsh said.

“I want to retire when I have my health,” said Marsh, who makes about $150,000 a year.

Marsh took the Windsor job after serving as first selectman in Chester, Conn., where he also owned a janitorial services company, according to an August 2011 Valley News article.

He and his wife, Kathy, were drawn to Vermont, especially after they became more familiar with the state after two of their children decided to attend colleges in the Twin States.

Marsh replaced Steve Cottrell, who served as town manager for three years and returned to Florida after deciding not to ask the Selectboard for an extension on his three-year contract, according to a February 2011 Valley News article.

The Selectboard considered a few other candidates with more town manager and municipal government experience, but Marsh stood out.

“Tom was a little different, but we were impressed with his energy and creativity in terms of thinking about how to manage a municipality and his communication skills,” John Tansey, the chair of the Windsor Selectboard when Marsh was hired, said in a phone interview last week.

A welcome from Irene

Marsh’s tenure in Windsor started with a huge task: During his first month, Tropical Storm Irene hit the area. The storm caused millions of dollars of infrastructure damage and in order for the town to receive funding through the Federal Emergency Management Agency, or FEMA, Marsh had a lot of paperwork to complete.

“We didn’t close the paperwork on Irene with FEMA until 2021,” said Marsh, who is also the town’s public works director.

When Marsh arrived, the town was also going through a period of instability, he said.

“If you looked at town, it looked rundown,” he said.

Some of the residents he encountered were, in some ways, still reeling from the loss of Goodyear and Cone-Blanchard, manufacturing plants that closed in the 1980s.

Marsh’s predecessor had started to get Windsor back on firmer footing and putting plans in place to improve the town’s aging infrastructure, including the water and sewer system, Tansey said. The town was starting to put money toward capital funding, which it had not previously done a lot of before.

“What we needed was somebody who could really come in and execute, be a strong manager to get the town’s finances in order by keeping the municipal tax increase minimal, but also making needed investments in the community,” said Tansey, who also lauded Marsh for forming partnerships with community organizations including the Mount Ascutney Regional Commission.

“Tom has been very good at that, he’s been good at leveraging grant funding and different ways of finances to keep costs low.”

Marsh put a focus on improving infrastructure, including the dam near Kennedy Pond and rebuilding sidewalks. Windsor’s budget was around $3.5 million in 2011 and has since doubled to around $7 million. He attributes the increase to labor costs, vehicle loans and long-term debt for infrastructure projects.

In 2011, Windsor had around 45 employees and now has around 50, he said. Health insurance costs continue to rise, including a 23% increase in the last year.

“The roads, sidewalks, were all in pretty bad shape and the town had no money in the bank so the only way to make progress on that is to do 20-year bonds,” he said. “The entire fleet of vehicles here was essentially falling apart … the police cars were old, the highway trucks were breaking down and the ambulances were in disrepair.”

In addition, Marsh said he used his background and degrees in management and marketing to help residents focus on all the good town has to offer, which he emphasized in a weekly newsletter he started.

Among the town’s attributes, he said, are its landscape, access to mountains and the Connecticut River, its downtown business district and its proximity to the “core” of the Upper Valley where many people work.

“At the time, this seemed like a town that was kind of beaten down, had a lot of good attributes,” he said. “They just needed to blow their own horn a little louder.”

Tansey cited Marsh’s communication skills as one of his strong points. In addition to the newsletter, he’s made regular appearances on the town’s public access channel, Windsor On-Air. He also sends out regular surveys asking for residents’ feedback on town services.

“He does a lot … for people to give input and then communicate back out about what’s happening and why,” Tansey said.

Jane Osgood grew up in Windsor and returned to the area in 2000. She owns numerous properties downtown with her husband, Ted Hilles, including the historic Windsor House. The couple own and operate State & Main Associates LLC, a Windsor-based commercial real estate company.

“During his tenure Tom was able to address multiple town issues including road repair, transportation, economic development, beautification and has listened carefully to everyone in town and tried to help or implement their ideas,” Osgood said in a phone interview last week.

She also cited Marsh’s support for historic preservation and support for businessowners.

“Our town is particularly supportive of people who want to start or move their businesses to Windsor,” Osgood said.

Marsh hired Bob Haight to be the town’s zoning administrator, a role he left around two years ago. A longtime Windsor resident, Haight said some previous town managers had come in with an attitude that they knew everything that was wrong in Windsor and they were the ones who could fix it. That attitude tended to rub residents the wrong way, Haight said. Marsh brought a different approach.

“Tom, he’s personable,” Haight said in a phone interview last week. “There are definitely people who have strong feelings about Tom in other ways as far as being unhappy about one thing or another, but overall I can’t imagine anyone would have done it better than he has done.”

There are some things Marsh wishes he’s done differently over the years.

“Maybe putting more onus on the various Selectboards over time,” he said. “I think I had been maybe a little too controlling. … I went to a (Selectboard) at one point and I said ‘you guys are supposed to be the vision. I’m just the implementation.’ It wouldn’t be uncommon for someone to refer to me as the mayor of Windsor and that’s not my job.”

Marsh said he encourages people to come forward with ideas themselves instead of waiting for town officials, like the town manager, to suggest something. Moving forward, he’d like to see more of that in Windsor.

“I think that collaborative thing where the Selectboards do set the vision of the community and the town manager implements that vision can make for a healthier community,” he said.

Marsh’s tenure has not been without its controversy. Longtime town clerk Sandra Micka resigned in 2018 after saying she was not getting paid more because of her gender, which Marsh denied.

A few years ago, he also opposed efforts to plant a Pride Tree on the Town Common and to raise a Pride flag at the municipal building because he thinks the only flags that should fly there are the U.S. and Vermont flags. The Selectboard has since approved the request to fly a Pride flag during Pride Month in recent years.

In March, he hired former Weathersfield Police Chief Bill Daniels to replace outgoing Windsor Police Chief Jen Frank without going through a search process, which upset some residents.

Hiring a successor

While residents have expressed concerns to Selectboard members that the town manager hiring process would be similar to the one for police chief, Howard said, that will not be the case.

“It’s completely separate,” she said. “We definitely want everybody involved.”

Selectboard members hope to have a plan in place by December for how to find Marsh’s replacement, giving them a six-month timeframe to post the job, review applications, set up interviews and hire someone.

While the details have not been ironed out yet, Howard spoke in favor of hiring a consultant to assist the Selectboard with the search.

“We have a lot of stuff to look at between now and then,” she said.

This summer, Selectboard members have attended community concerts, as well as set up a table outside of Price Chopper to talk to residents about what they’re looking for in Windsor’s next town manager. Another outreach session is scheduled to take place from 6 to 8 p.m. Wednesday during a Concert on the Common gathering at 39 State St.

So far, “I think the gist was having someone who understands a small town” and how to run one, Howard added.

Selectboard members are planning on holding a public forum this fall to discuss their findings and solicit more community feedback.

After retirement, Marsh and his wife intend to continue to live in Windsor and spend time in Cape May, NJ, where they also own a home. He said he will not run for office in Windsor, but is interested in volunteering to serve the town in other capacities, whether that be through town bodies or area nonprofit organizations.