For 35 years, Becky Cutting has been a mainstay at the center of so many important town functions, having been initially hired to be our town planner and later taking on the additional official title of chief procurement officer. But those two titles only begin to scratch the surface of all the official and unofficial tasks so ably performed by Becky.
So many departments and boards came to rely on Becky for diverse projects as the need would arise. Questions regarding land use planning? Call Becky. Housing policy? Call Becky. Historic preservation? Call Becky. And the list goes on and on.
And now Becky has retired, leaving an amazing void to be filled. Toward that end, the Select Board is sponsoring Article 34 on the May Town Meeting warrant, seeking to add a new department, the Community Development and Planning Department, modeled in large part on a combination of the many tasks that Becky would routinely perform “including but not limited to land use planning, housing policy, transportation projects, historic preservation, community development, sustainability efforts, open space conservation programs, administration of regulatory boards and neighborhood improvement efforts.”
To carry out these many tasks, Article 34, if passed, will empower the Select Board to appoint a director of community development and planning who, in turn, will have the authority to appoint additional employees, subject to the approval of the Select Board.
The job responsibilities envisioned under Article 34 clearly illustrate, on the one hand, how much we are going to miss Becky Cutting and, on the other hand, how supremely talented Becky had been during her three-and-a-half decades of dedicated service to the town. The fact that this new department will likely require more than one person to carry out all of these tasks speaks volumes about how fortunate we have been these past many years to have been able to rely on one person, Becky, to perform most if not all of these functions.
Town Administrator Thatcher Kezer has assured us that the creation of this new department will be funded through retirements, vacancies and other personnel changes. It remains to be seen if this can be accomplished without additional stressors being placed on our increasingly challenged annual budget. Nevertheless, underscores how big the shoes of Becky Cutting had become that now need to be filled somehow.
We wish Becky much happiness and good fortune as she enters the next chapter of her life’s journey, and we thank you, Becky, for all that you have done for our seaside town.
You will be missed!
