By Isabell Macrina
Hometown Weekly Staff
Westwood Public Library kicked off a new event series, Community Coffee Hour! On the first Wednesday of the month, community members curious about what is happening in Westwood can gather at the library for a cup of coffee and speak with different Westwood community leaders. For the first session everyone gathered to speak to Town Administrator Connor Read, who was appointed in February of 2026 after filling the same position in Easton for fourteen years.
Read started by talking about his history and how he got into the position of Town Administrator. He was from a difficult family split and only turned himself around when intervened by a high school resource officer and a history teacher. After graduating UMass Dartmouth with a Political Science bachelors and a minor in Philosophy (which he got after meeting his wife who majored in it, how cute), he went on to have a “citizen business advocate” position in Easton, eventually Assistant Town Administrator then acting one and town clerk. He views himself as a public servant first.
Transitioning from Easton to Westwood has been a change for Read, because different town charters and governments work differently. Easton had a five person Select Board while Westwood has three, and an established infrastructure with the sewer system, and MBTA commuter rail.
Since he started the position, he has worked behind the scenes of building and renovation projects like Fire Station 1, which was not designed for modern trucks and ambulances, not to mention health and safety concerns. The building costs and employment raised some questions from the crowd, like where their taxes were going in this sea of reconstruction. The form of the community hour connected people to the people who can answer questions, because they are out there but no one wants to peel through pages of ordinance to find it.
Learning Read’s philosophy of public service, with transparent communication, public accountability, and setting clear goals that aligned with the board’s values, made a lot of people in the room much more comfortable asking questions. Read noted that that public feedback and engagement, even criticism, is part of the job, but he admires how people come out to events like these and want to engage more with their community.
