Lifelong Winchester Resident Acting Director of DPW

Jay Gill strolls around town with a pen and paper in his hand, always looking for ways to improve Winchester. There are plenty of times when residents have walked up to him and made a suggestion or informed him of a pothole.

And after being promoted to Acting Director of the the lifelong Winchester resident is looking forward to improve the town even more.

“I’m proud to say I’m from Winchester,” Gill said. “There’s not a day that goes by where I’m not trying to make this the best town in Massachusetts. I want tom improve the infrastructure and the quality of life for every taxpayer in town.”

Gill has been with the DPW for the past 28 years. He started as a laborer in the water department and eventually made his way up to Operations Manager – a position he held for the last 10 years – before moving on to director.

“I’m looking forward to this challenge,” said Gill, who’s taking over the retired Ed Grant. “It’s exciting, but it will definitely be challenging.”

Among his challenges, Gill said maintaining and then improving services will be a top priority, with the limited manpower the department has. According to Gill, when he started in the DPW there were over 80 employees, now it’s down to 32.

“We have to do more with less,” Gill said. “We have to improves services. And we’re always looking for cuts.”

According to Gill, two of his biggest goals are to improve the Transfer Station and look at potentially instituting a

“We need to look at cost-saving measures,” Gill said. “With budget restraints we need to maintain the infrastructure. People pay a lot of taxes to live here and they want to see new sidewalks, roads paved and trees planted.”

Gill said that he wants to look at some creative ideas to help the town continue to improve, like his adopt-an-island program.

“The money’s not there, but luckily this town has a lot of volunteerism,” Gill said. “It’s getting tougher to do things, but in this town, people are willing to help out and that’s been a big help.”