The Cabot Parks and Recreation Department has a new director whose responsibilities will include restoring confidence in the department after a series of embarrassing episodes that cast a shadow over an organization that has done outstanding work.
Larry Tarrant, the new parks director, succeeds Carroll Astin, who resigned recently after a couple of embarrassing disclosures, including the theft of $8,000 by a former bookkeeper who wrote herself duplicate paychecks over a two-year period.
In addition, The Leader disclosed last weekend that State Police investigators are looking into the department’s failure to pay withholding taxes, which could be blamed on the bookkeeper who pleaded guilty to the payroll thefts. (She has agreed to repay the stolen money.)
Parks commission members are hoping the withholding taxes are no more than $13,000, which is a significant amount, although the department could pay that amount, plus penalties and interest, in the next few months. Let’s hope there aren’t other skeletons in the closet yet to be discovered.
The lax oversight occurred during the previous mayor’s administration, so Mayor Eddie Joe Williams is blameless. But he has called for more accountability and Tarrant, who has served as interim director and program director, is trying to put the embarrassing episodes behind and run an open administration with integrity and fiscal responsibility. After all, the missing money belonged to the people of Cabot, who deserve an honest, lean and well-managed parks department that serves the town’s residents and is not a personal piggy bank of the crooked and the greedy.
We’d like to think that with better oversight and a new start, Larry Tarrant will turn Cabot Parks and Recreation into a premier parks and recreation department. Like people everywhere, Cabot folks deserve better.
