New Selectman: DPW Must 'Be Taken Care Of'

Mary-Louise Woolsey has been working on a list of glaring issues Hampton needs to improve for the past three years, although there's one overarching area that trumps all others on the newly-elected selectman's multipage document.

The Hampton Public Works Department.

Woolsey, who in Tuesday's town meeting elections, said much of the list focuses on "doing things legally" and running the town and budget with proper management, although there are also numerous things she said could be done in order to help a "poor department" that has "been neglected for years."

"This town — and I challenge anybody to say otherwise — this town couldn't run for a week without the Public Works Department," said Woolsey, this year's Hampton Budget Committee vice chair. "It's the biggie. It's the big, big situation that needs to be addressed. Public Works has got to be taken care of. The new director [Keith Noyes, hired in summer 2011] inherited a terrible mess. He can't do it alone. We all need to pitch in."

Woolsey, a former selectman whose "favorite word is 'work,'" said she plans to do her part to help foster a kind of leadership that can allow for necessary changes to happen.

"Mismanagement" and a "somewhat of a lack of focus" by previous boards of selectmen only exacerbated problems pertaining to what she feels was a poorly-constructed in-house recycling plan and the lack of a plan to fully address Hampton's crumbling sewer lines, according to Woolsey. Woolsey also said town leaders didn't do enough to make sure voters actually passed a washdown facility project designed to save thousands and avoid even more in possible environmental fines due to chemical runoff.

Also ridiculous, according to Woolsey, is the fact that the department is the only one in Hampton without a contract, and has been without one for seven years despite the fact that a slew of town and school unions got deals at town meeting in 2012.

Woolsey said there need to be more steps toward collective bargaining resolution, although she said more than just a contract is preventing the department — which she said is making strong strides from within — from running at the best of its ability.

"We absolutely need to settle [a new contract], but that’s an employee issue, and I’m not downsizing the importance," said Woolsey. "It's important for them to have a settlement, but what I’m talking about is the health and well-being of the department as a whole so they can provide the services they need in a safe and cost-effective manner.

"It's a 'soup-to-nuts' thing. We need to clear the deck and start from scratch and look at everything. When we have a public works director trying to run a department spending 40 percent of his time on trash and recycling, that’s ridiculous."

Going through and identifying the weak points in Hampton's recycling approach with the intention of fixing them and ensuring the town gets the "whole situation" correct will take time, although Woolsey said it's possible if people just "focus and do it."

"There's a lot of hard work ahead," said Woolsey. "Public Works is enough of a big thing to keep everybody busy for a good while. It's just got to be done."

HAMPTON-NORTH HAMPTON PATCH: Facebook | Twitter | E-mail Updates |