Selectwoman Di Masters is stepping down as director of the community center.
After five years of fund raising, grant writing, booking weddings and managing a beautiful and treasured old building, Di Masters is stepping down as director of The Ridgefield Community Center.
Ms. Masters and Community Center Board President Rich Vazzana both said the decision was mutual.
“Five years is enough time. It’s the amount of time I told them when they hired me,” Ms. Masters said Monday. “I have things to do. And the community center is getting ready to do some very bold renovations.”
“She wasn’t fired,” Mr. Vazzana said Monday, contradicting a rumor that had been circulating over the weekend.
“It was a matter of: ‘It was time.’ It was mutual,” he said.
“We’re ready to do all these new renovations and painting and everything. Di just said ‘It’s been five years, let me pursue other things.’”
Both Ms. Masters and the community center board have lots going on.
“So they’re going to be busy doing their big changes and I have other things to do, not the least of which is I have a large family spread all over the world — a daughter in West Africa, and kids everywhere,” Ms. Masters said,
She and her husband, Paul, have seven children, ages 29 to 17. Two are overseas — one in New Zealand and one serving in the Peace Corps in West Africa, not far from where there’s a serious outbreak of ebola virus.
“Also, I have my town responsibilities that I take very seriously,” said Ms. Masters, who serves on the town’s Board of Selectmen. “But I’m also pursuing some other career interests, as well.”
And, she’s been going south frequently to see her mother, who is in poor health.
“She’s in Florida,” Ms. Masters said.
“It’s been quite a year. I lost my dad this year.”
Mr. Vazzana credited Ms. Masters with doing a lot for the community center, particularly with advancing needed exterior repairs.
“With all the work she did for grants, etc., she was able to get us the monies to fix the things that had been let go,” he said.
The community center’s board is now starting to focus on the building’s interior, and launching a major renovation project.
“One of the things we found when we did the focus groups — and Di led that effort — is people said the interior is beginning to look a little dodgy,” Mr. Vazzana said. “The women’s committee stood up and said we’ll lead that effort. The women’s committee is donating $60,000 toward this, which is a large amount of money.”
But it’s not enough.
“The estimate is about $200,000 to $250,000, so we’ll be figuring out how to raise the rest of the money,” Mr. Vazzana said.
“This is work we’re planning on doing in the winter. We’ll close the place down —we think it’s going to be eight to 10 weeks — get it all done,” he said. “Then we’re going to have a huge grand opening.”
The community center board will also be looking for a new executive director.
“I gave them five years,” Ms. Masters said. “We got a lot done in five years.”