Selectmen Vote to Give Town Manager a Raise

Like most town employees, William Ross will receive a 2% increase in his base salary.

After getting good marks from the selectmen, Town Manager William Ross will receive a slight bump in pay. As stated in the contract of most town employees, Ross will receive a 2% increase in his base salary. Currently, Ross makes $142,000 along with a yearly Mansfield Electric Stipend of $10,000. Ross' electric department stipend and vehicle allowance of $5,000 will not change The raise is substantially lower than the $13,000 increase in pay Ross received last year. Selectman George Dentino called it one of the smallest raises for a town manager he could recall. While the selectmen wished to give Ross a higher raise, they felt that it was best to have Ross receive the same pay increase as everyone else who works for the town. "I don't mean…

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Mansfield Unlikely to Move Town Election to US Senate Primary Date

After looking at the pros and cons of a change of date, it is unlikely that the town will move the town election to the same day as the US Senate primary according to Town Manager William Ross.

While towns across Massachusetts are changing the date of their town elections to occur on the same day as the special primary for the U.S. Senate seat vacated by John Kerry, it is unlikely that Mansfield will take a similar action. Locally, Wrentham, Plainville and Norfolk have moved their town elections to the same day as the primary. The Foxborough Board of Selectmen plan to take up the issue in the near future. After looking at the pros and cons of a change at the Feb. 20 meeting of the Mansfield Board of Selectmen, town clerk Marianne Staples could not recommend moving the May 14 town election to April 30, the date of the Special U.S. Senate Primary according to town manager William Ross. One of the issues was that the election would …

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Town Manager Ross Reports on Snowstorm Response

Town Manager William Ross praised town workers for their response to last weekend's snow storm.

Town Manager Bill Ross took the time at last night’s Mansfield Board of Selectmen meeting to praise the efforts of the DPW, Mansfield Electric and others who worked during and in the days following last weekend’s snow storm that saw over 30 inches of snow fall in Mansfield. “Our staff worked very hard during the storm to the point of exhaustion,” Ross said during his report to the board. “They spent a lot of time and worked very hard.” While admitting that it did take some time to get all the snow removed, Ross said that being in the jackpot area for snowfall extended the usual cleanup time but he would go over what went right and look at what needs improvement. Ross cited a piece of snow equipment from 1997 that was simply not up to the …

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Mansfield Phones in Dire Need of Repair

Mansfield school district and municipal phones are out of date and faulty, according to town and school officials.

The Mansfield municipal and school phone systems are out of date, according to both departments. Both school district and town officials have been saying for years now that the system was in need of replacement, but budget concerns and more necessary items in the capital budget have repeatedly pushed back the project. Schools face the hardest of the problems, as Mansfield High School principal Michael Connolly said that the phones can go down sometimes five times a day, causing headaches for administrators and parents alike. “It’s a daily routine,” he said. “If anyone remembers the dos type system, that’s what it looks like, it’s antiquated. We do the best we can, unfortunately sometimes you get a voicemail message late, sometimes you don’…

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New Hybrid Vehicle for Mansfield

Mansfield parking enforcement officer Steve Simons will be driving a new hybrid vehicle.

Town Manager Praises Proactive Roof Efforts

Fire Chief praises Smith and Nephew work.

Mansfield Town Manager William Ross commended the Town Building Department and the Fire Department staff at last week’s selectmen’s meeting for outreach to building owners in the industrial park.  In a phone interview last week with Mansfield Patch, Fire Chief Neal Boldrighini stated that proactive measures throughout town enabled Mansfield to avert the roof cave ins many surrounding areas experienced. The biggest threat was at Smith and Nephew, where the weight of the snow caused a gas line crack. Boldrighini said the Smith and Nephew’s roof had “heavy deflection” and praised the company for their speedy efforts. He said the company shut down for 24 hours and worked round-the-clock to save the roof and replace the gas line. “It is a big …

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Mansfield on the Lookout for Potholes

DPW, town looking for help from residents in finding the big ones.

Potholes are everywhere, jarring both drivers' teeth and their patience, but selectmen aren't predicting how long it may take to track them all down and patch them with the current temperatures staying fairly cold.  Still, the board and the Department of Public Works want help from motorists, so they can attempt to fill some of the worst ones before an accident happens.  "It's very difficult to patch potholes in the winter," Town Manager William Ross said last week. "There is a lot of breakup in the streets. We are seeing residential streets breaking up because of frost in the ground, and the freezing and thawing."  He said the town was expecting some warmer weather in the next few days, and this window could allow some repairs to proceed…

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Mansfield Without an Accountant Again

Stanbrook leaves after a year on the job.

Mansfield is on the hunt once more for a Town Accountant, with the recent announcement by John Stanbrook that he is leaving town for a better paying job in another community.  Stanbrook held the job one year, following Eric Hart, who held that office for only nine months before pulling out and returning to Rockland, where he had served before Mansfield. Town Manager William Ross, who just celebrated his own one-year anniversary in Mansfield, announced Stanbrook's departure Wednesday, January 19 and later said he and several selectmen had tried to convince the valuable and talented accountant to stay, to no avail.  Ross said Stanbrook's next job promises more pay and more responsibility, both of which he has been looking for.  But Ross also…

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Health agent trained in pandemic planning and preparedness

Scott Leite attended an instructional course at the CDP.

Mansfield’s Health Agent, Scott Leite recently traveled to the Center for Domestic Preparedness (CDP) in Anniston, Alabama to attend an instructional course in pandemic planning and preparedness. The CDP is run by the United States Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). They provide training for planning and preparedness in the face of emergencies, such as natural and man-made disasters, pandemics and many more. The course that Leite and 24 other government employees from around the country attended ran for three days from December 6-8. It focused on the threat of pandemic flu, a continuity of operations plan, non-pharmaceutical intervention, mass prophylaxis and community response. Leite signed…

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Snow removal woes

Sub-contractors, heavy snow, aging vehicles, holiday vacations all factors in the Dec. 26 storm, say town officials.

With the threat of a major storm looming once again for mid-week, two key meetings last week may shed some light on what residents can expect concerning future snow removal. The January 5 Board of Selectmen meeting and a conversation the following day, between Mansfield Patch and Lee Azinheira, Head of the Department of Public Works, revealed a number of problems behind the clean-up after the Dec. 26 storm. Town Manager William Ross, a veteran of vicious, mid-Western winter snowstorms in his past jobs, was adamant in his address to selectmen that less-than-sufficient road-clearing efforts will not be repeated.  He told the board a reprise of the storm with DPW and public safety officials revealed several shortcomings.   "None of us was …

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