Windham town planner George Dycio resigned without explanation Monday after eight years of service to the town. In his absence, the small staff of Windham’s community development office is now left to cope with the flood of building applications for new commercial and residential property that have piled up since the beginning of this year.
Community Development Director Roger Timmons took on Dycio’s duties immediately and is now acting as both the town planner and its only code enforcement officer.
But Timmons, who has filled in as town planner off and on in the past, is optimistic that, with help from staff, business will continue as usual.
“I’m just one guy trying to do code enforcement and planning,” Timmons said. “But we’ve got a bunch of great secretaries here. I know I couldn’t do it alone without their support.”
As town planner, Timmons must now review all applications submitted for new development in Windham and advise the Windham Planning Board on these building proposals.
Dycio leaves at a time when more and more developers are looking to build in Windham and as the town struggles to revamp its outdated building ordinances and set out a path to ensure regulation of future growth.
The Planning Board is in the process of overhauling the way it does business to more effectively review building applications. Meanwhile, Town Manager Anthony Plante has called for a “meeting of the minds” among several town committees to consider how best to implement the town’s ten-year Comprehensive Master Plan and fine tune town ordinances.
Dycio’s departure came as a surprise to Planning Board member Keith Williams. Unlike other past town planners, Dycio was a “trained and experienced” professional, Williams said. But as building applications came in spurts, increased pressure was put on Dycio and his small planning staff.
“Several months ago, George was overwhelmed to get applications reviewed as quickly as the developers were coming in,” Williams said. “And those developers wanted things done yesterday.”
For a long time now, Windham has not had enough staff to handle the number of building applications it receives, Williams said, especially for a town that holds the “second highest count in two states (Maine and New Hampshire) for new development.”
The community development office lost one code enforcement officer last spring and was looking to hire another town planner once office space became available. Now the town hopes to fill all three positions.
Currently, about 50 building applications are at different steps in the review process. And Plante is looking to distribute the workload so one person doesn’t carry the burden.
“Things like this never happen on a schedule,” said Plante of Dycio’s resignation. “George never gave less than 100 percent, but things change and we need to adapt and move on.”
Send questions/comments to the editors.
