North Reading Community Planning Administrator Resigns

Community Planning Administrator Heidi Griffin resigned earlier this month. Her last day was May 4.

Town Administrator Greg Balukonis said, "I am confirming Ms. Griffin submitted her voluntary resignation that was effective on May 4, 2012. She left for personal reasons."

Griffin confirmed that she left for personal reasons, and said it was a hard decision to make. She enjoyed working for the planning commission, she said. They are "very fair and forward-thinking."

“I miss them already,” she said of the commission. “That was the hardest part of leaving, saying goodbye to them and my assistant Debbie Savarese.”

When Griffin first started as the community planning administrator, the department just looked at permitting, however, she chose to go beyond that by writing grants. One of the several she wrote gained the town 1.7 million dollars.

Chairman of the Community Planning Commission Warren Pearce said that Griffin was an excellent grant writer and provided a lot of good programs and grants for North Reading. He admired that she worked on many other things outside of her job as planning administrator.

"She will be missed," he said. "She's going to be difficult to replace. She did a lot of work for everybody."

According to Human Resources Director Alyson Olsen, she is unsure when the town will begin searching for someone to fill Griffin's position. 

"We are in discussion about it, I have no idea when that is going to happen though," Olsen said.