Town officials are in agreement that the town needs to create a new facilities manager position, but they disagree on whether or not they can or should fund it this year.

Town Meeting Article 8 seeks to both create and fund a facilities manager position. A facilities manager would be in charge of all town and school buildings, and be responsible for all of their long range planning and every day projects. Town Manager Richard MacDonald and selectmen first discussed this idea publicly last fall.

MacDonald is not in favor of funding the position because he said the position and how it relates and reports to both the town and the schools needs to be fully fleshed out before funds are committed.

“I’m 100 percent behind putting this position in the personnel plan, but I have reservations funding it this year because I think we need to have a plan in place to go forward,” said MacDonald.

School committee chairman Gary Magnuson agreed. He wanted to know the details of how such a position will impact the schools staff and budget.

Selectmen Chairman Shawn Dahlen wants to see the position funded this year.

“A facilities manager is something the town is ready for,” Dahlen said. “I think it’s important to fund it this year. We have to make a positive commitment.”

Dahlen said that this is the right time to hire a facilities manager as the municipal and educational building boom is just beginning in Duxbury. Town building committee chairman Frank Mangione said his committee members supported funding the position. They researched 14 neighboring communities that have facilities managers in order to bring the idea forward to the town.

“We have a general job description and we have a pretty good handle on how we think it (the position) should run,” said Andre Martecchini of the town building committee. “We don’t envision it taking away custodial services from the schools, for example. We have a $55 million operation with a major amount of infrastructure that we manage. We need professional help.”

Martecchini felt it was “essential” to fund the position this year. “I just think that if we’re going to do it, we should fund it. This year is bad and next year isn’t going to be any better.”

Dahlen said having a facilities manager will pay for itself by saving the town money as this person would prioritize the needs and work to be done on the town’s 50 buildings. Dahlen directed MacDonald and Finance Director John Madden to look at all funding sources and see if there was a way the position could be funded. He asked them to report back to him at a future meeting.

“I’m not presuming to tell John and Richard where to find the money, but there’s always a way,” said Dahlen.

MacDonald had offered a ballpark salary of between $50,000 to $80,000 when he first mentioned the idea, but Madden explained that it was more complicated. A facilities manager needs to have a budget that included money for expenses.

“I have $6,000 to play with for FY2013,” said Madden. “If it’s approved, you will have it funded by FY2014.”

Selectmen voted 3-0 to support Article 8 but then they voted 2 to 1 to support asking MacDonald and Madden to finding funding for the position this year.

Selectman Chris Donato voted against this request, saying, “I think they’ve said they’ve already done as much as they could do.”