Higgins pg 1 9-12-19
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By Linda Lemmon
Town Crier Editor
PUTNAM --- Given his approachability, it's no wonder that new town administrator Joseph Higgins' choice for a photo was taken in front of Cargill Falls --- complete with sunglasses, shorts and sneakers.
Approachability, plus practicing good listening skills, are anchors of his management style.
Higgins said he applied for the town administrator job because "I find Putnam a great town to work in. I am familiar with the town and the travel is nice as well. I am also pleased with the direction the town is going."
Higgins replaced Mary Calorio as town administrator. Calorio left to became the town manager of Killingly.
Raised in Brooklyn, Higgins had a civil engineering degree and then earned a master's of public administration degree. Both degrees were from UConn.
He was an engineer and liked the challenge, but then became interested in town administration. He came to Putnam after serving as town administrator of Andover. "I like the challenge and varied work that aligns with town management," he said.
"My favorite part is that you never know what to expect in a day's work and I'm always learning." Asked what his least favorite part of the job, he said "I can foresee that it would be challenging to take extended vacations and fully disconnect from responsibilities given the nature of the job."
After joining Putnam this summer, Higgins spent time listening, assessing what challenges face Putnam and putting together plans to address those challenges.
He said: "Putnam does have similar challenges to other small towns. We have a great staff of department heads here that help facilitate meeting those challenges."
Higgins sees the new municipal complex, correcting audit findings with the finance department and addressing blight are current priorities in Putnam.
"We are currently addressing all three. We have regular municipal complex design meetings; we have a schedule and plan to address finance department concerns and I meet with the assistant finance director regularly. We also have formed a blight committee that meets monthly and we are creating a procedure to implement on our list of properties," he said.
What has he learned about Putnam so far? "I've learned that Putnam is a generous and caring community.
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