Tisbury DPW director Fred LaPiana will retire in December

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Tisbury department of public works director Fred LaPiana submitted a letter of retirement, effective December 31. — Photo by Janet Hefler

Tisbury department of public works (DPW) director Fred LaPiana submitted a letter of retirement, effective December 31, to the board of public works (BPW) commissioners at a meeting Monday night.

“My goal has always been to serve the town to the best of my ability for 20 years and then to move on,” he wrote. “I have thoroughly enjoyed the challenges and opportunities we have undertaken as a team on behalf of the citizens of the Town of Tisbury, and we should be very proud of our accomplishments over the last 20 years.”

Mr. LaPiana informed the BPW about two years ago of his intention to retire by the end of this year. In preparation, the board hired a consultant to review the DPW workload and staffing. The consultant recommended adding an assistant public works director to handle scheduling and the day-to-day interactions with crews and to provide quality assurance.

At Tisbury’s annual town meeting in April, voters approved the addition of the assistant director position with a starting salary of $69,176.

The new position is tied to restructuring the department and will be funded through savings from the loss of three positions through attrition as the result of privatizing garbage collection last year.

Mr. LaPiana said the BPW plans to start advertising his position very soon. The commissioners plan to wait to fill the new assistant director’s position until after they select a new director so that he or she can be included in the process, he added.

The DPW operates under the direction of an elected board of five public works commissioners. The department is responsible for providing essential services to the residents and for maintaining the town’s infrastructure, according to the town website. Those services include town road maintenance, sewage plant operations, municipal trash collection, cemetery maintenance, lifeguards at town beaches, park scheduling, and a summer recreation program.