South Barrington names new administrator

South Barrington Village President Frank Munao has appointed a new village administrator to replace the retiring David Pierce next month.

Mark Masciola worked for Hanover Park for 29 years but lost his job as assistant village manager there last year due to financial cutbacks, Munao said.

The tentative appointment remains dependent on Masciola signing a contract with the village, probably later this week, that would finalize his salary and benefits.

If he does, Munao believes Masciola would begin on or about Oct. 4. This would create an adequate transitional period that would allow Pierce to stick to his original plan to make Oct. 15 his last day, Munao said.

Pierce offered to stay on a bit longer if there had been any delays in the search process.

Masciola Tuesday said he preferred to withhold comment on the new job until the final details of his start with the village had been worked out.

He rose to the top of a field of 62 applicants from across the nation who sent their resumes to South Barrington.

"Mark had a lot of things we were looking for," Munao said.

Masciola's years of municipal service were one very big plus, as well as his strong experience in the area of public works.

Though South Barrington doesn't have a public works department, it still has public works responsibilities which are often assigned to contractors, Munao said.

In recent years, these projects have been overseen largely by the village engineer while the building officer has been busy with The Woods subdivision and The Arboretum commercial development. But it's become increasingly expensive to assign so many non-engineering projects to the village engineer, Munao said.

Masciola also handled many special assignments during his years with Hanover Park that have broadened his municipal experience, Munao added.

While Hanover Park isn't much like South Barrington in many ways, few communities are, he added.

Aurora is not much like South Barrington either, and yet the village has been well served for the past 11 years by Aurora's former full-time mayor - Pierce - in the role of administrator, Munao said.

Pierce, 63, was mayor of Aurora for 12 years but had been out of office for two years when he became South Barrington's first full-time administrator in July 1999.