The town of Middlebury announced on Oct. 10, 2024 that Mark Pruhenski will enter into the role of town manager on Jan. 15 of next year, replacing former town manager Kathleen Ramsay, who stepped down last month.
The town manager plays an important role in managing a number of municipal issues and components, including traffic, safety, housing and infrastructure. Pruhenski described the daily activities and responsibilities of a town manager in an interview with The Campus.
“A town manager is responsible for the day-to-day management of a city or town, for the supervision of department heads and town staff, and for drafting and managing the town's annual operating and capital budgets,” he said.
In Middlebury, there are seven members of the Selectboard who each serve a three-year term. Town residents can run for a selectboard seat in March and are elected through a voting process. Middlebury’s town manager is not elected, but rather appointed by this elected board and has no fixed term limit. The Selectboard conducted three rounds of interviews with representatives from Middlebury College and town department heads to decide on the top candidate for the position. Even though the elected board is responsible for the official town manager search, the community’s opinion is taken into account during the board’s considerations.
Pruhenski has worked in municipal government for 20 years, currently as the top municipal administrator for Great Barrington in Berkshire County, Massachusetts, where he is in charge of 14 different departments and over 100 employees. Pruhenski has also managed two other towns in Massachusetts: Waitley and Richmond. Beginning as the public health director in Great Barrington, Pruhenski worked his way up the ladder in town government, which allowed him to spend 10 years serving the town in a variety of ways, from being an animal control officer to serving on the fire department.
He has also co-owned two different coffee shops, one of which was in Middlebury.
“I feel so much better prepared for this role,” Pruhenski said. “I just loved it right away. I loved being able to impact my community in a really significant way. And, local government is so different from state and federal government, because most of the services that residents receive are coming from your local government.”
Purhenski noted that his biggest accomplishment while serving in Great Barrington has been keeping the town community connected during the Covid-19 pandemic. He worked on projects such as the Berkshire Busk outdoor street festival in collaboration with a local Great Barrington group, a rainbow crosswalk program to promote inclusivity and funding several housing development projects.
During the interview process for the position, Pruhenski observed Selectboard meetings.
“I was so impressed with how open-minded the board was, how well they listened,” he said.
Tom Hanley, the current interim town manager and former Middlebury police chief, remarked that Pruhenski was chosen for his “clear vision” for the town of Middlebury.
Hanley said that Middlebury and Great Barrington have a lot in common, referring to the towns as mirror images of each other. Pruhenski agreed with this sentiment that the two towns have a similar positionality supporting adjacent rural communities.
“We're also the economic hub for anyone around us who is looking for shopping, eating, entertainment, banking, gasoline, things like that,” he explained in reference to Great Barrington. “We’re host to a number of our neighboring communities.”
Even though a small college — Bard College at Simon’s Rock — is located in Great Barrington, Middlebury College is a much more prominent presence in the town of Middlebury than Bard is in Great Barrington. Middlebury and Great Barrington both struggle with infrastructure, although Pruhenski added that such challenges are not unique to either town. From visiting and watching Vermont, Purhenksi has noticed significant improvements to capital development in the area that he hopes to continue.
Ever since leaving Middlebury, Pruhenski has been determined to find his way back.“You can be in a coffee shop at 9 a.m. with a friend and be out on a hiking trail 20 minutes later,” Pruhenski said of living in the town. “It's perfectly sized to my mind. It has access to everything that I would want in life personally.”
When Pruhenski gets to Middlebury in January, first on his to-do list is to observe the town and get to know the culture.
Middlebury’s town culture is a diverse one, with industrial workers, artists, Pulitzer-Prize winners and farmers among the ranks of town residents. In addition to individuals, local organizations, nonprofits, the town offices and community spaces also contribute to the town culture. Pruhenski is excited to explore all of these different elements of Middlebury and finds it essential to foster relationships with these culture-building forces.
After coming out of retirement to assume the role of interim town manager, Hanley said that he is doing everything he can to prepare for the new manager, such as preparing the town budget, so that Pruhenski can experience a smooth transition into his new role.
Pruhenski is always ready for a challenge or a new chapter. Whether that is the multi-day process of baking sourdough bread in his kitchen or leaving his hometown to manage a new town, he is committed to doing what he loves. In 2025, with this spirit and courage, he will be ready to dive right in.
