Town Hires New CFO, Dylan Cook

By Adam Swift

Dylan Cook, Chelsea’s school business manager, is moving onto a new position as Winthrop’s new Chief Financial Officer.

Last year, Town Manager Tony Marino and Superintendent of Schools Lisa Howard agreed to create a new position in the town that would oversee finances for the schools and municipal government. The existing finance positions for the schools and town will remain in place, according to Marino.

At Tuesday night’s Town Council meeting, Marino announced the hiring of Cook, one of three finalists for the job.

“He has some municipal experience with the town of Wellesley prior in his career,” said Marino. “We had him speak with (assistant CFO) Robbie (Powers) and they had a good meeting there. After three good interviews with three good candidates, we felt Dylan was the best pick.”

Cook will start his new position on Jan. 30.

Other Council News

In other business, Marino addressed some ongoing issues that are being addressed at the municipal parking lot behind the For Kids Only program on Bartlett Road. The Town Council recently passed a new municipal parking ordinance that limits the amount of time vehicles can park in municipal lots during the day, and limits the lot to vehicles with resident parking stickers overnight.

On the town side, Marino said there were several old school vehicles in the parking lot that went up for auction and have been removed. He said there are still several public works vehicles in the lot that will be auctioned off soon.

“With the new municipal lot ordinance that was passed, we have to look at some signage in that lot, but we do have several commercial vehicles that are parking in there,” said Marino. “We’ve reached out to one of the owners of the livery company, and they are going to move their vehicles out in the next week or so.”

The town manager said the town also needs to get in touch with a disposal company that’s parking a vehicle in the lot to have it removed.

“Overnight parking is only supposed to be for residents with stickers, and people that are parking there are not,” said Marino.

There are other locations in town where parking spots can be rented for the livery company and other commercial vehicles, Marino said.

Marino said he is also working with the public works department to address concerns about sidewalks on Walden Street and some other streets in the town.

“We are looking at some ways we can slow down the traffic on Walden, maybe improve some visibility where it meets Pauline,” said Marino. “There are other areas in town where we have had some constituent requests for sidewalks, and we are looking at all of that.”

At the next council meeting, Marino said the council will hopefully vote on a new town trash ordinance that could be in place by the spring. He said he will also have an update on the future of the old Winthrop Middle School.