Belchertown Select Board Completes Town Manager Performance Review at Special Session

BELCHERTOWN -- June 9, 2026, Belchertown Select Board scores Town Manager Steve Golabek across 20 performance categories in a special session, with marks ranging from 2.6 to 4.2. The board, meeting June 9 at Lawrence Memorial Hall, completed its second-ever full group performance evaluation, with Chair Whitney Donahue compiling de-identified ratings from all five members into a draft document read aloud during the session. Golabek received the board's lowest marks, 2.6, in anticipating and analyzing problems and in providing timely reports to the board, while earning a 4.2 in energy and initiative and a perfect 5.0 in ethics and integrity. His score on the largest goal, advancing economic development, came in at 2.8, prompting substantial discussion about whether the part-time economic development coordinator position should be expanded to a full-time director role and whether Golabek should receive executive coaching in that area. The board also noted that over $3 million in Sports Haven infrastructure contracts have been issued, with $1.5 million in additional funding still needed, and that the fire department living quarters renovation came in under $200,000. Golabek will complete a self-assessment and the signed evaluation will be finalized without a return public meeting; a goals-and-objectives session for fiscal year 2027 is scheduled for late June.