Ghost of Midnight

Sunderland Selectboard takes action to fill vacant Town positions

Reported in the Manchester Journal yesterday…

In other business, [the chairman of the Sunderland Selectboard] said there has been discussion lately on Front Porch Forum, the social media site… about town government and… how to get more people involved in local government. He said Sunderland has been having trouble filling open positions, some of which include compensation…

“These positions are open routinely. The lister hasn’t been filled for years,” he said. “We just can’t get people to come in. The lister is a paid position. The auditor is a paid position; it’s 20 bucks an hour … it actually pays something. No one wants to do it.”  Hyde said if these positions stay open, contractors would have to be hired…

The board decided to post meeting agendas to Front Porch Forum, to help disseminate the information.

Wise decision by town leadership!  A new survey recently found that FPF subscribers are twice as likely to be “very informed” about local government services than those not using FPF.  And the number of people who attend municipal meetings at least once a month increases 38% when joining FPF.