Marblehead Director of Public Health announces retirement

MARBLEHEAD – Director of Public Health Wayne Attridge is scheduled to retire Jan. 3 after 34 years with the town, and he will make what is likely to be his farewell appearance at a Marblehead Town Meeting 17 days from now.Attridge told the Board of Health Tuesday that it is time for them to discuss filling his estimated $85,000 position with Town Administrator Tony Sasso. Board Chairman Helaine Hazlett said she would meet with him and Sasso after Town Meeting.Attridge told the board he has already begun looking at the director?s job description.?A few things have changed over the years, some added job responsibilities, and there may be some more responsibilities if the transfer station project goes through,” he said.Board member Todd Belf-Becker told Attridge he should be one of the speakers for that project when it is discussed at the May 1 Town Meeting. “You?re the face of this committee for a lot of people in town,” Belf-Becker told him.Attridge is a graduate of Marblehead High and the Essex Agricultural Institute, and a former employee of the Municipal Light Company. That?s where he worked in 1979, when he finished second of three candidates for a Board of Health seat in the town election. A month later he was elected to a seat on the health board to replace a member who was elected to the Board of Selectmen. In a joint meeting of the selectmen and the two remaining Board of Health members he received the support of both health board members, including his former opponent, Donald Moore. His campaign issues in 1979 included a new study of refuse disposal and recycling, Attridge was chairman of the Board of Health in the fall of 1984 when Raymond Reed retired. The board interviewed five candidates, including two internal candidates, without making an appointment, and the other board members approached Attridge to see if he were interested.?It was because of my interest in solid waste disposal,” Attridge said Thursday. “They knew there were changes coming in solid-waste technology.”When an opinion from former Town Counsel Paul Lausier cleared the way for Attridge to resign from the Board of Health, apply for public health director and be appointed 30 days after his resignation, Attridge did so and was unanimously appointed to the post.Since then, technological changes have been coming at a rapid pace. “We didn?t have computers when I started, they came in while I was here,” Attridge recalled. “Technology changes every day and the next director will have to be really computer savvy.”?There?s a time when you have to realize that it?s time to let someone younger with more computer knowledge come in, and I?m smart enough to recognize that,” he added.?I?m proud of my work in the community. This is still a great community. As (Selectman) Bill Woodfin would say, ?Marblehead forever.”