Katelynn Lemieux, who the Saugus Housing Authority Board of Directors selected as the authority’s next executive director earlier this month, signed a contract with the board Monday.
Laura Glynn, the authority’s departing executive director, said that Lemieux will be a good fit for the Saugus Housing Authority.
“I think she’s going to be great,” Glynn said. “She’s young, she’s energetic.”
With the board and Lemieux having reached an agreement, the contract has been sent to the Executive Offices of Housing and Livable Communities for approval. Glynn said that this process should take between one to three weeks.
According to the contract, Lemieux will start the job on April 1.
At the board’s last meeting, its members lamented that Glynn, who has served as executive director since 2013, is leaving the position.
“We’ll never get another one like her,” Board Treasurer Dorothy Bockus said at the meeting.
Glynn said that in her time with the authority, she and the board’s members had the same goals — to save public housing in Saugus, to keep the public housing administered by the authority occupied, and to create a welcoming and successful community.
Her good relationship with the board, she said, is because of her good relationship with the residents of properties administered by the authority. The fact that the authority’s staff continued working throughout the pandemic, she continued, contributed to its reputation.
“Everyone showed up everyday through COVID, from the admin staff to the maintenance staff, and I think the residents really appreciate that, that we didn’t abandon them during COVID,” Glynn said.
The authority’s staff has done an outstanding job during her time as executive director, Glynn added.
Glynn, who is leaving the position to take care of her parents, said that now is the right time for her to go.
“Working in senior housing, when an ambulance and firetruck come up, you see how precious life is,” she said.
