PIERMONT – The town administrator has tendered her resignation after four years.
Effective Oct. 16, Sarah Tucker will leave her role as town administrator but has agreed to continue working part-time during the transition, according to a town notice from Rick Daley, chair of the Selectboard.
“Sarah has decided to accept another opportunity,” Daley stated in the notice.
“This decision was not made lightly,” Tucker wrote in her resignation letter to the Selectboard. “Serving this community over the past four years has been an incredibly meaningful experience, and I am grateful for the opportunity to have been part of the Town’s work and its continued growth.”
In the town’s notice of her resignation, Daley described Tucker as instrumental in improving and streamlining town operations.
“Our little town’s policies and procedures were hopelessly out of date,” Daley told the Valley News in a phone interview. “We’ve done a ton of progress in kind of bringing the town operations into the modern era.”
Tucker agreed to stay on part-time to not “leave the town in a lurch,” Daley said.
His expectation is for Tucker to remain part-time through the end of the budgeting process around the end of the calendar year.
“I am committed to making the transition as smooth as possible and will do everything I can to assist the Selectboard and staff during the transition period,” Tucker wrote in her resignation letter.
Tucker’s resignation is spurring a reorganization of administrative responsibilities, with the recruitment of a finance officer and a Selectboard assistant.
“It would be difficult to find a new candidate that can do everything (Tucker) has been doing as town administrator,” Daley said.
The Selectboard hopes to fill the role of finance officer internally by transitioning a current office staff member who has experience with Piermont’s financial systems, procedures and policies, he said.
The Selectboard assistant will serve as a liaison between the Selectboard and the public, state agencies and vendors, he added.
Experience will impact hours and compensation, Daley told the Valley News. Both positions will be advertised on the town website “very soon,” he said.
In the interim, town office hours will be reduced and responses to phone and email messages are expected to take longer.
“Hopefully we’ll get some great candidates, and we’d love to minimize the disruption,” Daley said.
Tucker did not reveal her next job opportunity to the Selectboard.
Reached by phone on Monday, Tucker said, “It’s been a great experience getting to work with the board and the townspeople.”
