By Polly Mikula
A number of personnel changes have taken place recently in the town of Killington.
On Monday night, Oct. 16, the Select Board accepted the resignation of Chet Hagenbarth who is retiring after over a decade of service to the town. He was the highway and facilities director before being appointed town manager in 2018. In August he became the public works director, as Michael Ramsey took over as the new town manager.
The town will be seeking to replace the public works position that Hagenbarth is vacating immediately.
The town has onboarded three new staff members and one intern over the past month.
Lisa Davis, who has been working as a planning consultant as a subcontractor has now filled the full time position as town planner; she is working with a new intern from UVM who is spearheading research for a municipal energy resilience program grant.
On the finance side, Mary Ellen Keenan-Haff has taken the position as finance director, which was recently vacated by Mark Dakota. Keenan-Haff was selected from a dozen applicants who applied for the position.
The town fire dept. also grew by two, hiring twin brothers Richard and Craig Bowman who are certified Advanced EMTs and firefighters. The fire department will now be staffed 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, and is working to convert an office space to a bunk room.
On Oct. 3, the town police dept. also grew welcoming Greg Ricketts to the department, which now has four full time officers including Whit Montgomery, the police chief.
Ricketts came from the Rutland County Sheriff and is also an EMT. “He has really hit the ground running,” said Montgomery, telling the Select Board Monday, Oct. 16, that he already has made two arrests for excessive speed and negligent operations of a motor vehicle. One was to someone going 99 mph on The Flats of Route 4 and one to someone going 80 mph on Killington Road.
“He enjoys the community policing aspect here, too, and is excited to get to do more of that,” Montgomery noted.
On Monday, the Select Board approved $18,000 for the purchase of six portable electric speed signs with messages. Two will be mounted to posts on Killington Road, two on River Road, one going downhill on West Hill Road and one on East Mountain Road.
The town expects the electric welcome signs at the base of Killington Road and the one in front of the public service building to be competed by early November.
