Published in the October 5, 2016 edition.
By MAUREEN DOHERTY
LYNNFIELD — The Board of Selectmen was unanimous in its endorsement of one candidate for the position of Director of Public Works Monday night.
Anthony Furnari, a Peabody resident who has spent the last six years as the Director of Public Services in the city of Newburyport, was offered the job in a 3-0 vote by Selectmen Chairman Phil Crawford and Selectmen Chris Barrett and Dick Dalton.
In issuing their unanimous vote, the selectmen instructed Town Administrator Jim Boudreau to enter contract negotiations with Furnari for this position and to return to the board’s next meeting with the terms of that agreement for their final vote on his appointment.
If a contract agreement is reached, Furnari would replace DPW Director Andrew Lafferty who resigned from the post Sept. 9 after serving two years here.
Coincidentally, also on Monday night, it was announced during the North Reading Board of Selectmen’s meeting that Lafferty had been hired as that town’s new DPW Director by Town Administrator Michael Gilleberto, filling a department head position that had been vacant since March. Under North Reading’s town charter most department heads are appointed by the town administrator, not the Board of Selectmen.
Furnari was one of three finalists presented to the selectmen by Boudreau, all of whom were interviewed individually by each member of the board prior to Monday night’s meeting during which the selectmen discussed their preferences to each other for the first time.
30-plus years of experience
Furnari has over 30 years of experience in the public works field. In his present position he has been responsible for the overall management of the city’s water, sewer and highway divisions. Previously, he served six months as interim director of the same department.
With the exception of a two-year stint as the Assistant Public Works Director/Director of Operations in Danvers from 2007-09, Furnari has worked for Newburyport in a variety of public works positions since 2002. He has also worked for the city of Salem in its Department of Public Services from 1997-2002 and has experience as a fleet operations supervisor for the Essex County Sheriff’s Department and as a labor foreman for the Boston Housing Authority.
The other finalists were James M. Waugh, who retired in June after 30 years of municipal service rising through the ranks of the Saugus DPW department, including four years as Assistant Director of Public Works and one year as Temporary Director of Public Works, and George Potter, the current Assistant Superintendent of Highways in Lynn where he has risen through the ranks of that city’s DPW department for 20 years.
Selectman Chris Barrett said they had a number of “strong candidates” for this position and he wanted the selected candidate to become acclimated to the town prior to the winter months.
“One candidate was at the forefront of the three candidates I sat down with today,” Barrett said. “One key piece that we discussed is the importance of communication with groups in town, especially with Recreation,” he said, adding he was pleased with Furnari’s desire to be involved with town groups.
In addition to Furnari’s “strong budgeting experience,” Barrett said he was pleased that Furnari feels it is important to be “visible in the community. He said he won’t be found in the office; he will continuously be going around the community of Lynnfield and making sure we are maximizing the potential of public works.”
Barrett was also pleased that Furnari was excited about the prospect of becoming involved with the town’s capital facilities group which is currently reviewing “the short-term and long-term future of the buildings in the community.”
Selectman Dick Dalton said that while all three candidates were strong he agreed “wholeheartedly with Chris (Barrett) that Mr. Furnari is my strong No. 1 with the ranking that I did for the same reasons that Chris mentioned.”
“We talked a lot about communication and the disappointment this spring that a lot of people experienced when they went to the different fields. He seems to understand the importance of communicating with the Rec Commission and the schools being maintained properly, and communicating well with the Board of Selectmen,” Dalton said, adding, “I was very much impressed by his enthusiasm and I have no qualms in strongly recommending that he be considered for this position.”
Crawford agreed that these three candidates each have the necessary experience to do the job well and added that each was “very well liked, very well recommended.”
“Mr. Furnari was by far the standout candidate of these three,” Crawford said, noting that his “enthusiasm” was evident. “He was very excited about the opportunity here,” Crawford said. “He also likes the challenge of coming to a community like Lynnfield where we’re doing a lot of new work in the town,” he said, in reference to the ongoing road improvement plan and the new fields projects.
“He takes a lot of pride in what he gets done and I want him to instill that throughout the community and also in his department,” Crawford said.
