The search committee tasked with winnowing the field of candidates to replace Ann Vandal as Dracut Town Manager will include a couple of interesting names.

InsideLowell has learned that Alison Hughes is the choice of Select Board member Alison Genest to serve on the committee.

Hughes herself served on the Board of Selectmen from 2014-2020 and was one of the votes to appoint Vandal to the Manager’s position.

“Alison Hughes is a strong, conservative leader,” Genest told us when contacted. “Having served for 6 years on the Finance Committee and another 6 years on the Board of Selectmen, she is very familiar with our budget process, the Town Manager hiring process, what skills are needed to ensure the success of our next Town Manager, and how to keep Dracut moving forward.”

InsideLowell has also learned that Donald Plummer, who mounted a campaign for Selectman in the recent May town election, will be appointed by Board of Selectmen Chair Tony Archinski as his representative on the search committee.

“I think Don brings a private sector Executive management perspective,” Archinski said. “He’s intelligent and he cares very much about the future of our town.”

Archinski said he will have “no conversations with Don during the process so as not to interfere.”

The search committee will consist of seven members, with each of the five Select Board members getting to appoint a representative and the Board as a whole appointing two others to lead the process. The committee will officially be chosen at a meeting scheduled for June 25th.

The process also calls for Selectmen to be interviewed by the Collins Center individually to determine what they’re looking for in a town manager. Then the assembled committee will receive their charge.

Vandal announced her retirement at the June 3rd Town Meeting, effective September 13th, though with earned vacation time, she will be leaving August 9th.

Vandal became the town’s first female Manager in 2020, replacing James Duggan amidst a controversial process that saw a similar search committee scrapped by the Board of Selectman and Vandal, who had been serving in an interim capacity at the time, named to the permanent post.

The position of Interim Town Manager was posted on the town’s website today. That person will serve on a 90-day contract running August 1-November 1.