The plan to bring a facilities manager to Duxbury is moving forward, says the committee who’s working on it. Annual town meeting voters approved the creation of this new position in March and town officials plan to fund the job at the next town meeting. The salary range for this job is $60,000 to $85,000.

Meanwhile, an ad hoc committee led by Frank Mangione has been visiting  with other town’s facilities managers in an effort to understand the role this position plays.

“It’s progressing,” said Mangione of the committee’s efforts to better define how the position will work within Duxbury’s town government.

A facilities manager would be in charge of all town and school buildings and responsible for planning for both their annual maintenance and long-range capital needs. With Duxbury’s recent building boom, including the construction of a new police station, crematory, and school buildings as well as the renovated fire station and restored Tarkiln Community Center and Wright Building/Student Union, town officials believe a facilities manager is required to better oversee these resources.

Mangione said he, School Committee chairman John Heinstadt and Town Building Committee member Paul Brogna visited facilities managers in Danvers, Hanover and Marshfield and learned how the job operates in those towns.

In Hanover, a facilities manager was hired to oversee a new school project. Then all custodians were consolidated under the Department of Public Works instead of working for both the town and schools.

In Wayland, initially two facilities managers were hired: one for the town and one for the schools, but that model didn’t work as it was found only one manager was needed.

Mangione said that at this point, his committee has more questions than answers as it tries to develop a job description concrete enough to use to hire someone.

“We will tweak the job description and we’ll raise a series of questions that we can’t answer such as who will the position report to? Where will the job be housed? “We will move the ball forward to have people thinking about this so it can be finalized by next year’s town meeting when the position’s salary will be funded,” said Mangione.

It’s up to town and school department leaders to decide the answers to these questions, Mangione said.

The committee is currently going under the assumption that the position will report to the town manager but is aware that the school superintendent will want to be heavily involved, he said.

One of the larger questions has to do with budget. Will the facilities manager have his or her own budget line item for expenses or will money for building needs be culled from various budgets where it has been allocated?

Mangione believes there will not be an expense budget for the facilities manager until fiscal year 2014 or 2015. The first year would be devoted to getting to know the town’s buildings and understanding the new middle and high schools, which are currently under construction. Any funding in the first year would have to be found within existing budgets such as those of the DPW or the schools, he said.

The new facilities manager must have “good people skills, technical knowledge and experience,” said Mangione.

By understanding the needs of the town’s fifty buildings, the facilities manager will help the town plan for upcoming maintenance projects, thereby reducing any unforeseen shocks to the budget and to taxpayers.

“The object is to get someone to put forward a five to ten year maintenance plan for our buildings so we know about what is needed and can take care of these things in a timely manner,” Mangione said.