When Bedford Town Manager Russ Marcoux died suddenly last winter from an attack of bacterial meningitis, Crystal Dionne had a feeling the responsibilities would fall on her.

And more than anyone in the town, she was ready for the task.

“After Russ’ passing, just because of my involvement in just about every area of town government, I felt a personal responsibility to keep things going for him, and so I basically just stepped in without even giving it another thought.”

Hired in 2000, Dionne is the town’s finance director and tax collector, in addition to her responsibilities in human resources.

As if that weren’t enough, Dionne was offered $750 a week to take on the role of town manager. Without hesitation, she accepted.

“For the nearly five years that Russ was here I certainly worked very closely with him,” said Dionne, who just celebrated her 40th birthday. “We used to joke and say that everything here in town begins and ends in the finance dept, because we literally have our hands in everything.”

She complimented Marcoux’s leadership style, saying he would share everything with his staff and continually bounce ideas off of her.

“Every manager has their own style, and his was a hands-off style, which was very different than the previous manager. But it worked. Evert department head was given the latitude to do their jobs.”

As the longest-tenured department head in the town, the finance director was tapped to fill the town manager slot. She thought it would last three, four, maybe five months.

“For many it was the logical position, not necessarily the logical person, but because of this position I think most probably felt it was the next logical place to get their questions answered,” she said.

Dionne said the idea of assuming the position permanently had crossed her mind more than a million times. But as a mother of two children – an eight-year-old son and a four-year-old daughter – family came first.

“I had given it a lot of thought, and spoke to my husband about it frequently just trying to decide not only if it was the right thing for me, but if it was the right thing for my family,” she said.

During that 10-month stretch, Dionne said she was town manager by day and finance director by night. Not until putting her kids to bed would she break out the spreadsheets and begin crunching numbers.

“Even if it was 2 a.m. on a Saturday, I knew that was going to be required,” she said. “I felt it was the right thing to do to keep the town moving forward.”

During her tenure in Bedford, she oversaw the town’s first comprehensive annual financial report. She also led the way to a AAA rating from Moody’s last year, something which has helped the town secure extremely low interest rates on bonds.

But the most challenging aspect, she said, has been dealing with union contract negotiations, which she’s done a total of eight times.

“The most time-consuming contract to negotiate has traditionally been the police, hands down,” she said.

“When you’re negotiating a contract it mostly comes down to the numbers, what the union wants for wages and benefits and what the town can afford,” Dionne said. “My role was very involved in calculating those numbers.”

Ten months after accepting the interim job, Dionne was relieved when the town finally hired Town Manager Jessie Levine, who started on Tuesday, Sept. 18.

Dionne said now she’ll be able to prioritize her financial tasks – things that had been jettisoned in favor of her town manager work.

Asked if she was compensated fairly for her work, Dionne said the town had priced out an interim town minister and it would have cost $1,800 a week. Earning $750, not only did Dionne step in when the town need her, but she saved the taxpayers some money.

The new town manager knows she’ll be working closely with Dionne, especially as she shifts into the position.

“I think even what Crystal did as finance director before she had to be acting town manager alone is impressive,” Jessie Levine said. “She’s quite a capable and talented woman.”
And Dionne left few, if any, gaps that Levine would have to fill.

“I do know that having entered a job where there’s been a real lapse of somebody in that seat, it’s nice to know that nothing was put off for me to come in and deal with.”

Dawn Boufford, executive assistant to the Town Manager and the Town Council, agreed, saying the shift from Marcoux to Dionne was seamless.

“It really wasn’t much of a shift because working with her day in and day out she really stepped right in. There wasn’t a gap in anything.”

Asked where she sees herself in ten years from now, Dionne said she’d like to use her knowledge of finance and state laws as a consultant to town governments.

But for now all she’s thinking about is taking a vacation – somewhere where she can’t get service on her iPhone.