UPDATED – A 30-year key employee of the town of Westford has announced her pending retirement on Jan. 4.
Health Director Sandy Collins has submitted her letter of resignation to Town Manager Jodi Ross. She has been an integral part of many key occurrences and issues in town, including as a member of the Local Emergency Planning Committee, charged with establishing shelters in times of weather-related and biohazardous emergencies. Collins along with the town’s fire chief, police chief, superintendent, highway director and many others, kept residents safe and dry in trying times throughout the years.
“As a Board member, I have worked with Sandy for 6 years,” stated Michele Crawford, chairman of the Board of Health. “Sandy is incredibly committed to this town and the protection and promotion of Public Health. Sandy is a true leader; she manages and mentors six staff members, multiple consultants, and a volunteer base of 560 members.”
Collins arrived in town in 1986 as the Director of Nursing Services/Town Nurse. In 2004, she launched the Upper Merrimack Valley Medical Reserve Corps by soliciting and receiving a grant that helped support the town’s response capabilities, noted Crawford. Collins was named director of the reserve corps and has headed the group for 12 years. A registered nurse, Collins took over the health department in 2007 and was named the director of health care services in 2014.
Asphalt Plant Struggle
But regardless of title, Collins was instrumental in key health issues in the town. In 2009, a controversial proposal for an asphalt plant was submitted to the town’s Zoning Board of Appeals. As the Board of Health’s advisor, Collins led an effort to deny the plant, citing health risks of airborne chemical particles that could accumulate in the blood streams of children and adults and potentially cause illness. A number of boards and committees fought against the plant’s approval but a special permit was ultimately granted under a settlement agreement between selectmen, Planning Board members and the applicant – a Nashua-based company named Newport Materials. When word of the settlement reached residents the town erupted in rage with demonstrators on the town Common and angry comments expressed by residents at several public governmental hearings. Two of those public hearings were led by the Board of Health whose members voted to hire an independent attorney to advise them on how to enforce the many concessions Newport will be required to follow.
“This feels like de jàvù to me,” Collins said during the Oct. 20 Board of Health meeting after learning of the settlement. “We fought this so hard.”
Crawford praised Collins for her leadership role in keeping board members informed when the asphalt plant application was filed some seven years ago.
“Sandy took the lead during the original asphalt deliberations, working closely with town counsel and MDPH (Massachusetts Department of Public Health) to provide the Board with adequate resources and information to assist with their responses to the Planning Board,” Crawford stated. “As Sandy had a wide network of professional contacts, she was instrumental in obtaining health impact and dispersion modeling studies.”
Westford Coalition for Non-Violence
In 2010 after two horrific acts of domestic violence in which three Westford people died and two were wounded, Collins helped launch the Westford Coalition Against Non-Violence with an initial 70 members. Though membership is smaller than in those early days, the group, led by Collins, continues to meet monthly.
Recognition
In September Collins was awarded a certificate of merit by the National Environmental Health Association for her “meritorious contributions on behalf of environmental health from 2015 to 2016.” The award was in recognition of her role in creating a course for public health professionals begun in 2006. The six-month course, called the “Foundations of Local Public Health,” is sponsored by the Boston University School of Public Health and the state Department of Public Health.
Collins was described as a “great advocate whenever an issue came up threatening public or environmental health,” by her public health colleague Patrick Maloney. Maloney serves as the co-chairman of the Awards Committee for the state chapter of the National Environmental Health Association of Denver.
In October, Collins was also awarded the John D. Crowley Distinguished Service Award from the Massachusetts Health Officers Association, where she was a member-at-large on the Executive Board.
Follow Joyce Pellino Crane on Twitter @joypellinocrane.
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