After almost eight years of service to the town, Director of Planning and Community Development Ken Buckland is set to retire on Thursday, Feb 29, Town Administrator Derek Sullivan announced at the Tuesday, Jan. 9 Select Board meeting.

Buckland came into this position back in November 2016. It was a new position created by Sullivan by combining the duties of the planning director and community and economic director. 

The goal was to streamline how officials plan for the future by having Buckland answer directly to Sullivan. 

“His time here — it’s really been great,” Sullivan said, adding how he has been “key” in making changes to planning and zoning. 

He said he “really appreciates all his hard work.”

Select Board member Alan Slavin thanked Buckland for his work and help throughout the years.

“I'm going to miss him tremendously because he's done a great job and I do apologize for overloading him constantly with things that just you can't handle easily, but it's been a huge benefit to the town and we will really miss him.”

Select Board Chair Judith Whiteside said, “We really will miss him. I don't think many people know exactly how many hats he wears for the town, but he wears them very well.”

Instead of opting for another director of planning and community development, Sullivan said the town is considering having an economic development director with a sub-planning director: “It's a little bit of a lower level so that the Planning Board can have somebody directly associated with them.”