Katrina Glynn has been hired as Saranac Lake’s new community development director. (Provided photo)

SARANAC LAKE — The village has hired a new community development director to lead the Planning and Community Development Department.

The community development director is in charge of overseeing village zoning laws, writing grants, furthering the village’s goals for housing, parks and infrastructure, and working with private developers seeking permits from the development board.

On Monday, the village board appointed Katrina Glynn to the vacant position in a unanimous vote.

Glynn currently lives in Baltimore with her husband and two sons. Her husband, Alec DuMond, is from Saranac Lake and she said they’ve been looking to relocate back closer to his family for some time.

“I’m really looking forward to living in the place that I work and seeing the work that I do show in the community,” Glynn said.

Jamie Konkoski, who was the village’s community development director for six years, resigned from the position in July to pursue another job as a planner in the private sector. The village has been contracting with Matt Rogers of LaBella Associates to fill the CDD role in the interim for $22,000. While Konkoski is working at LaBella Associates now, she has not been working with the village’s account.

Village Mayor Jimmy Williams said he wanted to fill this vacant position quickly. He said approximately 20 people applied for the job. After state civil service eliminated those who didn’t meet the qualifications for the job, Williams said the village board narrowed down their options, interviewed their top three at a special board meeting and unanimously chose Glynn.

“She is exactly what we were looking for,” he said.

Williams said Glynn’s personality and work experience made her stand out. He described her as “driven, positive, energetic, personable and intelligent.”

Glynn’s official start date is Nov. 20, but Williams said she’ll be doing some remote work — starting to attend meetings and reviewing the development code — as her family moves to Saranac Lake.

Glynn said she has not worked in government before, but has experience with project management, grant writing and construction management in the private sector.

Most recently, she was the director of business planning and administration for the Johns Hopkins Health System in Baltimore. Before that she had been a project administrator and senior project administrator for Johns Hopkins since 2017.

Glynn didn’t comment on the village’s short-term vacation rental law or its other initiatives and projects, saying she wanted to learn more about them before talking about them. She said she’ll be working with village Manager Bachana Tsiklauri to get caught up to date on everything the village has going on.

The CDD position pays $80,000 a year.

After the vote on Monday, village Development Board Chair Allie Pelletieri said he was glad to hear about the hiring. But he also asked the board to hire someone to fill the Development Code Administrator role formerly held by Paul Blaine, which the village board eliminated in a 3-2 vote in April 2022.

“The experiment to go without that position did not go well,” Pelletieri said. “It’s too much work for just the community development director in my opinion.”

Konkoski said she chose to leave because the job has changed since she first was hired in 2017. When the DCA position was eliminated, their duties were transferred to Konkoski.

The vote to eliminate the position was controversial.

Mayor Jimmy Williams and Trustees Matt Scollin and Kelly Brunette voted yes. Trustee Tom Catillaz voted “absolutely no.” Trustee Rich Shapiro voted “hell no.”

Williams said the decision to eliminate Blaine’s position was a financial one, intended to save the village money by eliminating a position the village created in 2017, which he believes wasn’t working out the way they had hoped.

On Thursday, Williams said he wants to see how Glynn feels about her position and workload before making any changes to the village organization. He did not see a need to bring back the DCA position, adding that he’s not worried about a work overload, but that he would check in with Glynn to see how she feels about the position.