So Long, Cindy Baird

Why is Allenstown looking for a new Administrative Assistant? A job posting dated August 14 is now on the Employment and Volunteer Opportunities web page, but that web page showed an internal revision date of August 26, which is curious to say the least. Cindy Baird is currently listed on the Town Administrator's web page with an online contact page and 485-4276 ext. 110 as the phone number.

Sources suggest that ongoing difficulties between Ms. Baird and management might have led the 12-year employee to decide that submitting her resignation on Aug. 14 was the only option. But on Aug. 16, she had an accident that resulted in physical injury and loss of mobility. Possibly concerned about the loss of town health insurance, she then asked to retract the resignation on Aug. 18. She is now disabled for several weeks.

The Selectmen held two non-public sessions after their public meeting on August 21, so one issue that they might have considered was how to deal with the Administrative Assistant. The appearance of the job posting indicates that they rejected the request to retract the resignation. (Note that the selectmen have been holding one to four of these non-public sessions every meeting in recent months.)

Baird's last day of employment is to be Sept. 5. This is unfortunate since her health insurance through the town stops at the end of September, requiring her to apply for expensive, out-of-pocket COBRA coverage until such time as she has recovered and is then able to find employment elsewhere. Is it possible that ignoring the retraction was a convenient excuse to say, "so long, Cindy"?

What You Can Do

Contact the selectmen and ask why they couldn't have shown some compassion and allowed Ms. Baird to continue as an employee until she recovered over the next several weeks. It would have been the charitable thing to do for someone who had devoted a dozen years of service to the town.