DeSiervo To Depart Orleans Rec

ORLEANS – The town is losing its director of recreation, culture and community events amid talk of regionalizing recreation offerings with neighboring Brewster.

 Tom DeSiervo told the recreation advisory committee Aug. 20 that he would be leaving his post at the end of August, citing the need to address health issues with a family member.

 “It’s just one of those things where I have to put my family and my loved ones first,” said DeSiervo, who was hired as the town’s recreation director in late 2023.

 DeSiervo immediately made his mark on a recreation department that was struggling to grow programming and had seen the departure of two directors in a matter of months. Committee member Ken Gandolfi called DeSiervo the department’s “heart and soul,” praise DeSiervo was quick to share with the rest of his department’s staff.

 “It was a very difficult conversation my wife and I had to have in deciding on our future and where we wanted to be,” he said. “One of the things is we were hopeful we’d be able to live on Cape Cod and work in Orleans until I retired.”

 “I just want to stop for a minute and say how grateful, on behalf of this committee and me personally, we all are of all the work that you’ve been doing, and what a shock this is that you won’t be staying with us until you retire,” committee Chair Jamie Balliett said.

 Committee member Tracy Murphy said DeSiervo was a positive model for her children, who participated in Orleans recreation and worked under DeSiervo as teenagers.

 “I have said to them, ‘Look at how Tom shows up for the community and everything else,’” she said. 

 “I’m very sorry to lose you, but I’m also very grateful that you were here at a pivotal time for the department,” she added.

 While DeSiervo’s pending departure is a loss for the department, bigger changes could be afoot for town recreation. Conversations are ongoing between staff in Orleans and Brewster about regionalizing recreation programming, a move that has been met with questions by officials in both towns.

 DeSiervo said that Orleans Town Manager Kim Newman and staff in Brewster had “a brief conversation about the possibility of regionalizing” after he informed Newman that he was unlikely to return as director. He said he and Brewster Recreation Director Mike Gradone were tasked with putting together “a preliminary idea” for how programming in both towns could be regionalized. 

 From that, a proposal was presented to the Brewster select board on Aug. 10, DeSiervo said. The select board in Orleans was to discuss the draft proposal Aug. 26 after The Chronicle went to press. 

 “If both parties do agree to move forward with exploring more of the proposal, then Mike and I will sit down again,” he said. “Town managers will get involved, the select boards will get involved in seeing how we can shape this.”

 On Aug. 10, Brewster Town Manager Peter Lombardi told his select board that staff in Orleans approached him and Gradone earlier this summer about exploring a regionalized program model for an “initially undetermined interim period.” That could begin with a year-long pilot program that could start in the fall, he said.

Lombardi said he has seen regionalized recreation programs work successfully in other communities he’s worked in.

 “We certainly are interested in the possibility of helping Orleans through this time,” he said. “We’re also both interested in it potentially being something that we explore long term, but need to know more. And I think it would greatly benefit from having that real-world experience of having a pilot program.”

DeSiervo said preliminary plans call for a regional recreational director and an assistant regional director to oversee programming in both towns. 

“The regional director would be in one place and the assistant director would be in the other, and vice versa,” he said.

Both Orleans and Brewster would retain their two full-time and two part-time employees under the regional model. Orleans could also gain another employee in the position of office manager to handle administrative tasks such as payroll and program registration, DeSiervo said. That position could be full-time or part-time depending on available funding and resources.

Orleans Assistant Town Manager Mark Reil would help oversee the transition into the regional model, while DeSiervo also said he would help as needed during the transitional period.

“This is just a draft and a proposal, but like everything I do, I make sure I have everything taken care of if this were to come to fruition,” he said.

While that addresses recreation, Balliett asked what the plan would be moving forward for culture and community events.

“I would rather wait and have the town manager weigh in on the Aug. 26 meeting,” DeSiervo said.

Regionalizing recreation would effectively expand programming for both towns by allowing children in Orleans and Brewster to take advantage of programs offered in one town that aren’t offered in the other, DeSiervo said. It would also allow programs to draw from a larger pool of children that can participate, he said.

“I fully support this approach,” Brewster select board member Mary Chaffee said. “We are a small, rural community with limited resources, and we’re always looking for ways to stretch our budget dollars and do that with some creativity. And this opportunity gives us another chance to try another regional approach.”

 Gradone told the Brewster select board that Brewster and Orleans operate in a very similar fashion. But the rec committee in Orleans raised some initial concerns and questions with the preliminary proposal. For one, Murphy noted that Brewster has “historically” charged higher fees for its programming than Orleans has. DeSiervo said there would need to be conversations to establish a consistent fee structure in both towns. 

 Murphy also added that, in its Aug. 10 meeting, the Brewster select board didn’t seem enthused about sharing recreation resources. 

 “The idea that Orleans kids would be right in there on priority signups did not appear to be part of how they envisioned things,” she said.

 “And also when the conversation of camp issues came up, they’ve got a new pool, they’ve got a huge new property, and it doesn’t really seem like they’re interested in Orleans kids,” Balliett added.

 Both Orleans and Brewster also have their own projects and priorities that they’re focusing on. Balliett said Brewster officials have indicated their interest in focusing on their own recreational priorities. Gradone at the Aug. 10 select board meeting said that Brewster’s programming would not be compromised through any regionalization effort with Orleans.

 “Bottom line as I understand, for me at least, it’s Brewster first,” he said. “We want to help Orleans if we can, but bottom line we want to make sure we’re doing our job here.”

But Balliett said that Orleans has its own projects that need attention, including ongoing efforts to renovate the recreational facilities at Eldredge Park.

 “This is the first time in decades that we’ve had this level of renovation to Eldredge Park, so we want to make sure it’s done right,” he said. 

 “Eldredge Park has become my baby, and I want to make sure that it fully succeeds and that it is properly taken care of,” DeSiervo said, reiterating his willingness to stay involved in the project.

 Mike Solitro, the town’s special projects coordinator, assured the committee that Reil will be overseeing the day-to-day operations of recreation in DeSiervo’s absence, and that the Eldredge Park project will continue to be watched closely “in house.”

 Sharon Basso of the recreation committee also noted that based on the Brewster select board’s conversation, there won’t likely be an immediate transition into regionalization.

“It doesn’t seem like at least within the next 365 days that will be the case,” she said.

Still, committee members expressed shock at the news that there has been talk of regionalizing services between the two towns. Balliett said committee members were only notified of those discussions a week prior.

“In all honesty, we weren’t brought in earlier, which is a little bit frustrating to me. And I need to express that,” he said.

Balliett said moving to a regional model is a “fairly complex endeavor” that he hopes won’t stunt the momentum that’s been gained in Orleans recreation in recent years. He also expressed concern over upsetting the recreation, culture and community events department that the town has worked in recent years to successfully build.

“This doesn’t seem like the smoothest possible way to approach this, from my perspective,” Murphy echoed.

Balliett said that the committee could reconvene to take an official position on the regionalization plan ahead of the select board’s Aug. 26 meeting.