NORTHFIELD — With this month’s grant development director departure, the town is wasting no time in finding a replacement, as applications have come in and interviews are expected to get underway in the coming weeks.

At the beginning of the year, Northfield’s previous grant development director, Mallory Sullivan, transitioned from Town Hall to the state’s Executive Office of Economic Development to serve as the rural programs manager, according to Town Administrator Andrea Llamas, who noted Sullivan had expected to spend a few years with the town before this unanticipated opportunity arrived.

Upon Sullivan’s departure, the town immediately posted her position and has received an influx of applicants. The Selectboard is expected to organize a screening committee and schedule interviews at its upcoming meeting.

“We’ll begin the process of reviewing [applications] and scheduling interviews,” Llamas said. “Hopefully starting in the next two weeks.”

Sullivan was hired in October 2022 and began in November of that year. The full-time position is funded using American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) money and has a salary of $70,000 plus benefits. ARPA money will fund the position for at least two more years.

“There’s two full years of funding left,” Llamas said. “So, we’ll go with that and proceed from there.”

In the meantime, Llamas has reassumed the grant-seeking role, noting there are “a number of grants that we just signed contracts on,” and town officials are urgently working to hire someone and onboard them to the position.

As the town prepares for the hiring process, Selectboard Chair Alex Meisner said Sullivan did great work in her year with Northfield and they expect to be looking for an individual that “has the drive, the passion and the education to get involved in a business that is getting increasingly complex.”

“Grant writing is an art and in that art the person we have to look for has to be an artist in order to achieve some sense of financial victory,” he said. “Mallory was able to do that and she proved that to us.”

Unfortunately for Northfield, and small communities as a whole, Meisner said Sullivan’s talents were noticed by the state, which has far more resources to hire people at wages towns cannot compete with.

Looking ahead to the future, Meisner said whoever is hired to be the next grant development director will help the town pursue some of its larger, and sometimes expensive projects, such as the proposed public safety complex, the School Street bridge and the Schell Bridge.

“We’re looking at some long-term infrastructure builds … to keep this town moving,” Meisner said. “Overall, we’re in a really good place right now.”

Chris Larabee can be reached at clarabee@recorder.com or 413-930-4081.