NEW SALEM — The new year means a new town coordinator for New Salem.

The Select Board appointed Jessica Mooring to replace Kathy Neal and she started the job on Jan. 6. There will be some overlap on the town’s payroll, as Neal will stay on board until Jan. 17 to help her successor learn the ropes.

“Everyone’s been very welcoming. People have been stopped by to say hello,” Mooring said of her first few days on the job. “It’s been really great.”

Mooring, 27, grew up in Hadley and now lives in Amherst. She most recently worked as an environmental planner for Portland, Oregon, where she worked on zoning code projects pertaining to floodplains and wetlands. She took the Portland gig after getting a master’s degree in regional planning from the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where she had also earned a bachelor’s degree in natural resources conservation.

Sitting in her new office at 19 South Main St., Mooring said the town coordinator job was appealing because she “had worked for such a big city in Portland, where there’s, like, 5,000 public employees.”

On top of the normal town coordinator responsibilities, Mooring said she would like to digitize and modernize much of the town’s business.

Neal is wrapping up 3½ years on the job, having started on July 19, 2021. She lives in Sturbridge and said she and her husband will likely move toward the West Coast to be closer to two of their children. An Auburn, New York, native, Neal is a Suffolk University Law School graduate and retired attorney, but her law work gave her knowledge of zoning and land use, and she had become accustomed to appearing before municipal boards before accepting the town coordinator job.

“This Select Board has been really focused on getting some of the buildings upgraded and more usable. I think they’re going in the right direction for that, to achieve that, which is a big thing,” Neal said. “There’s always something different every day and you meet new people every day, it seems like. I’ve met some really nice people up here.”

Mooring said she will work Monday through Friday.

“Some shorter days, some longer days. But I’ll be in the office every day,” she said.

Neal said Mooring will start by working 32 hours per week, though that will increase to 40 if voters approve the necessary money at annual Town Meeting in June.

Reach Domenic Poli at: dpoli@recorder.com or 413-930-4120.