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Select Board honors long-serving public works employee and town clerk at retirement ceremony
Summary
The Mansfield Select Board recognized Douglas (Dougie) Sias for 39 years with the Department of Public Works and Town Clerk Mary Ann Staples for 13 years of service; residents and colleagues praised both for long-running contributions to town operations and elections administration.
The Mansfield Select Board used part of its Feb. 19 meeting to recognize two long-serving town employees: Douglas “Dougie” Sias, who served in the Department of Public Works for nearly 39 years, and Town Clerk Mary Ann Staples, who is retiring after 13 years in that office.
Josh Ranke, speaking on behalf of the Department of Public Works, read prepared remarks applauding Sias’s decades of service. “Doug started working for the town first as summer help, then hired full time to the parks and recreation department in 1983… In December of 1986, he was transferred from the Parks and Rec to the Department of Public Works, of which he continued to work for a remarkable 39 years,” Ranke said. The remarks noted Sias’s longtime work mowing commons and cemeteries and clearing walkways in winter.
Residents and colleagues spoke at the podium to thank Sias. “You were really a trooper down there,” one longtime board member and resident said, while others recalled personal interactions and assistance he provided to the community.
The board also recognized Town Clerk Mary Ann Staples, who received public praise for managing elections, vital records and for modernizing town records. Town Manager Kevin called Staples’s work “above and beyond,” citing her leadership during the COVID-19 era and her work enabling outdoor marriages and election administration. An audience member credited Staples with the town’s codification and electronic conversion of records, saying those changes will preserve local history.
Staples said she is leaving the office in the hands of two staff members named during the meeting. “I feel confident leaving the office in the town in very good hands. I would not be able to walk away if I didn't feel confident with them, but they are — Jen Davis now taking over as town clerk and Sandra Mandilly, who's taken over as assistant,” she said.
Both honorees received plaques and public thanks at the meeting. The board recessed briefly afterward and announced it would enter executive session later in the agenda.
