Returning to his former job in Barrington
SWANSEA – For the second time in less than three years, town officials are bemoaning the large shoes they need to fill to replace Alan Corvi as their public works director.
Corvi submitted a letter of resignation with two weeks notice on Feb. 9.
“I have accepted an employment offer with the Town of Barrington in the same capacity that I have had for nearly 11 years,” Corvi wrote.
He lives in Rehoboth and grew up in Barrington.
“He’s a big loss for Swansea. It’s difficult to find people with that type of experience. We really got lucky,” Selectmen Chairman Christopher Carreiro said Monday when contacted about reports Corvi was leaving.
He cited Corvi’s years of experience and educational background as a professional engineer and civil engineer enabling him to oversee work like the Swansea Dam and Pearse Road culvert reconstruction projects the past few years.
Equally impressive, Carreiro said, was the director’s ability to work with residents and the community over highway conditions and projects that were causing concerns.
Even when the town could not perform what they wished, relations remained cordial, Carreiro said. Among his staff, “they had so much respect for him.”
Hired by Swansea’s selectmen in September 2015 as director of highway & engineering services, Corvi worked for almost a year before accepting a project manager position with the Rhode Island Department of Transportation.
That was short-lived, however, when Corvi decided the state job was not the work he wanted.
Having delayed its search to replace him, Corvi returned to his Swansea job in November 2016.
He’d taken a pay cut from his long-time Barrington DPW job, accepted a $94,000 contract and when he returned got a slight bump into the $100,000 range, town officials said at the time.
Barrington’s DPW director is retiring Feb. 23, which will be Corvi’s last day on the job.
In his brief resignation letter, Corvi said he had 14 years vested in the Rhode Island system. It “played a significant factor in my decision,” he wrote to Town Administrator John McAuliffe. “This decision was not made easily.”
A search has not yet begun, Carreiro said.
Corvi could not be reached for comment.
Email Michael Holtzman at mholtzman@heraldnews.com or call him at 508-676-2573.