HUDSON — The Select Board officially issued a common victualer’s license to Revadee Chueawong, the owner of Coconut Rice Thai Cuisine, on June 5.
The restaurant will be located at 418 Main Street and will operate Monday through Sunday from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. It will be closed on Tuesdays.
Chueawong said there will be about 20 to 22 seats available for customers.
“You’ve probably seen a lot of people on Facebook asking about, ‘When are they opening?’” said Select Board Chair Scott Duplisea.
He asked when Coconut Rice Thai Cuisine would open. Chueawong said that everything was ready in the building for inspection. They hoped to open in “around two weeks.”
Other Select Board news
The Select Board also voted to reestablish a separate Information Technology Department as well as reclassify the IT Manager to a higher step in terms of salary and authorize an on-call stipend. Both votes were effective on July 1.
“This is long overdue. I believe it is a positive step for the department, for the town,” said Select Board member Michael Burks.
When Burks was with the Hudson Police Department, he worked with the IT Director Eron Dilo. Burks, who previously served as police chief, said that Dilo does a lot of work for the town as a whole. Dilo works well with every department, said Burks, and has a good plan to go forward with the IT infrastructure for the Town of Hudson.
Executive Assistant Thomas Gregory noted that during the fiscal year 2021, the finance director position was expanded to include IT duties. Although Gregory did not know the rationale for the initial change, as he hadn’t started in his current role as executive assistant, he said finance and IT were “two very distinct disciplines” with very little overlap.
“This returns to an arrangement before 2021,” Gregory said.
The lines of communication will be easier, Gregory said. Additionally, having a separate IT department makes sense structurally for the town.
Gregory said an analysis was conducted to look at the labor market for IT services. He discussed external equity, or how positions in Hudson compared to the labor market in other towns, in his memo to the Select Board.
He looked at 11 other communities and found that the salaries for the IT Director position were higher in other communities than the current salary for the same position in Hudson.
“That’s the basis for my recommendation,” Gregory said.
Select Board member Judy Congdon said she has worked alongside Dilo in her time with the Hudson Fire Department and said he was “well deserving” of the increase in salary for his services.
She added, “We are lucky to have him.”
