ORANGE — The town is slated to get a new building commissioner next month.
Jason Granai has accepted the job offer from the Selectboard and is expected to start on Feb. 9, when he will take over for Jeffrey Cooke, the former commissioner who returned to fulfill the responsibilities on a per-diem basis after Brian Mitchell’s November resignation.
Granai publicly interviewed for the position at the Selectboard meeting on Jan. 7, when he explained he lives in Athol and works as a building official in Brookline.
“Currently, I wake up at 3 in the morning, out the door at 3:30, get to work at 5, start my day, work till 5, 5:30 — maybe get home around 7:30 [p.m.],” he said, “so it’s a heck of a day and a heck of a workweek.”
Granai, who agreed to a $92,000 salary, told Selectboard members he looks forward to a shorter work commute.
“I appreciate the people I live around. I guess you could say they’re my kind of people,” he said. “Out east are city folk, if I can call them that. They’re a little more high-strung than we are out here.
“The commute does beat you up,” he added.
Town Administrator Matthew Fortier mentioned a committee had been tasked with screening candidates and Granai “is our one recommended finalist.”
Granai mentioned he has inspected projects ranging from bathrooms to custom 30,000-square-foot single-family homes and high-rise buildings. He said he grew up on a small farm in Connecticut before attending Norwich University in Vermont and then winding up in Maryland after graduation.
“I decided to come back to the area. I guess I’m a Yankee. I love the Northeast,” he said.
Granai lived in the Berkshires and then Florida before once again returning north.
“I ended in Athol, love the people up here — good, wholesome country folk, like the people I grew up with,” he said.
Selectboard member Mike Bates told Granai he seems like a good communicator, and Vice Chair Julie Davis said the biggest part of this role “will be putting on your thinking cap.”
Granai said he was a private-sector contractor for at least 35 years but has fallen in love with the municipal side of the field. He said he likes helping people navigate the red tape and he strives to treat everyone with respect.
“It’s one of the most enjoyable parts [of the job],” he said, “to have someone leave the Building Department with a smile.”