CHESTERFIELD – With several vacancies across boards and committees in town, Chesterfield is looking for volunteers to fill those gaps.

Town Administrator Brenda Lessard said the biggest vacancy is on the School Committee, but there are openings across several committees.

“We have a big problem with needing some people for our Hampshire Regional School Committee because we have two vacant seats on that. We also have a vacancy on our Board of Registrars for voting, Capital Planning, Cemetery Commission, Farm and Forests Commission, Recreation Commission, a Right to Know coordinator and also someone to come in and take minutes for our boards,” she said.

Lessard said there have been issues filling the School Committee since before she started on the job several months ago.

“For the Hampshire Regional School Committee, I guess they have been having problems with that for several years up here. I do not know how far back exactly because I am relatively new on the job up here, but I know that is a difficult thing to find somebody to do,” she said.

While the School Committee is an elected position, Lessard said appointments can be made to fill vacancies until the next election.

“Someone can be appointed into that position until the next town election. I believe people are required to take out papers and get signatures to get on the ballot, and they have to be a registered voter,” she said.

Lessard said she and the rest of the town office are doing everything they can to advertise the vacancies.

“We put it on our town signs, we put out a flyer up in the Post Office, it has been out on our town Facebook page and our town website. I am the town clerk in Williamsburg, too, and I know it is hard to find people to fill these positions,” she said.

Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, Lessard said people seem more hesitant to volunteer for committees.

“With all this COVID stuff, nobody wants to get on these committees anymore. Even trying to find people for the Board of Registrars is hard after the election in 2020, people do not want to get involved after hearing all these horror stories on the news,” she said.

If residents have a slight interest in any of the vacancies, Lessard suggested checking out their meetings to see what the committees are all about.

“A good way to see what some of these committees do is to attend some of the meetings to see what the committee is about, what is needed or what interests them. Maybe they have a background in forestry so they might want to get on the Farm and Forest Commission,” she said.

Lessard said she is hoping the town can fill some of these vacancies.

“I am hoping we can start getting some of these positions filled, it would be nice. It takes a village to make a community whole, so we need volunteers to keep the community running,” she said.

Anyone interested in filling any of the vacancies can reach out to Lessard at townadmin@townofchesterfield.com or call her office at 296-4771, ext. 1.