Colrain Select Board discusses coverage plans while Town Administrator Diana Parsons is on medical leave

The Colrain Select Board on May 8 discussed interim staffing and operational steps to cover Town Administrator Diana Parsons’s duties while she is on medical leave. Parsons said files for active grants — including the Woodlands Partnership and a Council on Aging grant — were organized for access; the board agreed the Council on Aging grant should be treated as a priority during her absence.

To reduce burden on existing staff, board members considered using the town’s stabilization fund to hire a temporary part‑time administrative assistant. The board also approved a plan to transfer the highway department email account to Superintendent Nate so he could manage highway correspondence with administrative support, and noted that the certified procurement officer could sign upcoming COG procurement bids for the Highway Department if Parsons is unavailable.

Parsons reported ongoing paperwork related to a Host Community Agreement with New England Craft Cultivators and said she would forward relevant documents to the board; she also noted a public meeting on the matter set for the 19th, with a town representative named Maggie attending. The board agreed to delay any public statement about Parsons’s medical leave until after her neurology appointment and discussed updating her voicemail to direct callers to administrative staff.

IT support provided a bypass code allowing staff to access OneDrive files without Parsons’s phone for two‑factor authentication, a step the board said would help maintain access to grant files and other documents during her absence. The meeting concluded with a unanimous vote to dissolve at 2:04 PM.