Andrew Sukeforth was 'sold on applying' for Lakeville town administrator role

LAKEVILLE — Andrew Sukeforth is getting ready to take his new seat at Town Hall. 

Sukeforth will begin his role as Lakeville’s town administrator on Monday, Oct. 28. 

At the top of the new town administrator’s agenda is “meeting everyone in every department,” and “putting faces to names,” he said. 

Communication will be a two-way street, he noted. “I don’t want people to come to me all the time. I want to go out there and see people.”

He’s starting at a busy time, just weeks ahead of Lakeville’s Special Town Meeting on Tuesday, Nov. 12. 

Keeping residents informed is another area of focus for Sukeforth. People want to know more about what the fire station is going to look like, for example, and how paying for that project is going to affect their checkbooks, he said.

Broadly speaking, he said, “Lakeville does a lot” and “I don’t think it really gets out there.” 

He would like to create a monthly newsletter to highlight the “main stories in Lakeville” so that residents can “really know what’s going on,” he said. 

Another idea he hopes to bring to fruition is creating a regularly updated document that outlines objectives of town boards for the next year that gives residents an idea of what town officials are working on, he said. 

This will serve as a “roadmap to how the entire town is trying to move forward,” according to Sukeforth. 

During his finalist interview, Sukeforth described serving as Lakeville’s town administrator as a rare opportunity. It’s an idea he’s entertained since Rita Garbitt left the post in 2019. He thought he had lost his opportunity when Maureen Candito and later Ari Sky stepped into the role, he said. 

“When Ari Sky resigned, I was totally sold on applying,” he said, noting he finally felt experienced enough for the role. 

His new post became available when Sky left the post last January. Since then, former Middleboro Town Manager and Taunton Mayor Robert Nunes has been acting as the town’s Interim Town Administrator. 

When Sukeforth found out he’d gotten the job, he said he was both “excited” and “relieved” to hear the news after making it through a long hiring process.

Sukeforth lives in Swansea and currently serves as Director of Procurement for the City of Taunton. He’s made it clear however that he has no intention of running Lakeville like Taunton. 

His goal is to maximize Lakeville’s charm, he said. The way to do that, he said, is by laying “out where you want things to happen.”

Sukeforth wants to maintain Lakeville’s semi-rural character under his direction. In his mind, “semi-rural” means keeping clearly defined boundaries between a town’s rural and commercial areas.

Outside Town Hall, residents can also expect to see Sukeforth exploring Lakeville’s conservation areas on foot. Outside of Town Hall, residents can also expect to see Sukeforth exploring Lakeville’s conservation areas on foot. The Middleboro native, who at one point held 13 Middleboro High School track records, still likes to lace up his sneakers.