Two Gardner Directors Speak at Appointments Committee Meeting
Both DPW Director Dane Arnold and Senior Center Director Mike Ellis were confirmed again by the Gardner City Council on March 18, 2024. The real story is the overwhelming praise given to both men by Mayor Nicholson and the Councilors at an earlier Appointments Committee meeting and the information shared by both Directors. Listen to the Appointments Committee meeting on any device. CLICK PLAY.
DPW Director Dane Arnold was praised for doing an excellent job. He began the job in 2001 after having been appointed by then Mayor Kelly. He has served the City for over 2 decades. Arnold provided details about work at the DPW.
Senior Center Director Mike Ellis was praised for his work during the past 3 years. He was appointed to the position by Mayor Michael Nicholson. Ellis provided details about the Senior Center.
DPW Director Dane Arnold praised his staff and the City, “I love working for the city. I have a great crew.I couldn’t do anything without the DPW staff that I have and the crew that I have in the administration office, including right down at Clerical. Just a great staff and a great city to work for…. So the wastewater upgrades, the water upgrades between the distribution system. Right down to the parks and playgrounds that we’ve worked on and continually try to work on. I’m very proud of my staff. I can’t reiterate how happy I am with the crew that I have, the DPW staff that I have.” Arnold spoke of the million dollar grant paving the way for work on the new water transmission line by early Summer and the $900k+ grant recently awarded for the James Street pump station. He also spoke of planned work on paving, potholes, and sidewalks.
Senior Center Director Mike Ellis provided some statistics on the people who come to the Center in a given year. “1,600 people come into the center. 784 of them were between the ages of 60 and 78. 567 are 75 and older, and under 59 were 99, and then we have an unknown 147. I think the important thing there to note, though, is we get about 50% of people who sign in or swipe into our system. So if you look at the numbers, it’s about 3,100 people served. But more importantly, we had, and this is an amazing stat, we had 640 VIP hours at the Senior Center. We had 405 volunteers that gave 10,500 hours to the Gardner Senior Center. If you do the math, at $20 an hour, because we have nurses and case managers and social workers who make certainly more than $20, and then we have folks that just help move tables. The minimum value of that to the citizens of Gardner and the Senior Center is about $206,000 in volunteer work.” Ellis related more details about the staff, volunteers, services, and programs at the Senior Center.