The town is seeking a full-time community center director. This position is responsible for the "leadership and management of a 36,000-square-foot start-up facility. The position will implement a business plan, create policies and procedures and oversee the daily operations," according to a notice received by the town clerk's office on October 20 from the Office of Human Resources. First Selectman Pat Llodra has approved the job description, which saw brief discussion at a Board of Selectmen's meeting earlier this month.

According to the notice, the position "will also be responsible for building and strengthening relationships with community partners, developing fundraising programs, seeking out grants and new opportunities for program development."

"Launching any new facility with expectations is challenging," said Mrs Llodra.

The person filling the position will be a Town of Newtown employee with a salary range of $80,000 to $83,000. Qualifications necessary include a bachelor's degree (master's preferred) in management/business, public administration, or social work/behavioral sciences with at least five years' recreation/community center facility management experience. Applicants should also have a strong history of leadership and staff development, membership and program planning, as well as budget, strategic, and community development, the notice states.

Mrs Llodra said it is "much too early" to have an idea of who may step forward for this position. She said the municipality "is active in the role of identifying candidates and we will have to see what the response looks like."

Regarding additional facility staffing, Mrs Llodra said the first step is to find director "and then have the director identify" additional staffing expectations. "We are going to need experienced people in aquatics, program staff, reception; we have an idea of expectations, but it's better to have director in place," Mrs Llodra said.

Staffing expenses will not come out of the town budget. The GE Foundation, which initially made a gift of $10 million for design and construction of a community center, also included $5 million - $1 million a year for five years - for operational purposes. The center will be "fully funded for at least first five years and we expect that the annual allocation will last far beyond five years," Mrs Llodra said.

For the past several years town officials and volunteer community members have been planning a community center, plans for which have recently gone out to bid. "It's early, we are just starting to bid out steel, concrete, and sitework packages," Mrs Llodra said. As responses come back they will be evaluated, she said.

Once bid decisions are complete, "then the work begins," Mrs Llodra said. The community center, which will include space for multipurpose programming, crafts, classrooms, a kitchen, and aquatic center, the arts, and multigenerational uses, is slated for construction across from the south entrance of the Newtown Municipal Center in Fairfield Hills.

The director's position will be filled well ahead of center construction completion. "It has always been my thinking and the [Community Center Advisory Committee's] thinking that we want to get a director in place before the building because there will be decisions made about the building that a director can influence and guide," Mrs Llodra said. First getting a director in place "has always been our goal." She expects that a director could be identified "in January or so, and that will be under the new first selectman, but I am getting that in place," Mrs Llodra said, as her term nears its end and the town will elect a new first selectman on November 7.

Human Resources Administrator Patrice Fahey said that the position was advertised internally as of October 19, and she will post it under the Human Resources Department on newtown-ct.gov after several days.