Thayer moving on from Amesbury for new job in N.H.
May 20—AMESBURY — The city is in the market for a new communications director after the first person to hold the job announced last week that she will be moving on.
Caitlin Thayer became the city's first communications director in January 2020 but she will be leaving the city to work as an operations manager at marketing company, Darci Creative LLC in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, next month.
Mayor Kassandra Gove ran her first mayoral campaign around a message of improving transparency and communications in 2019 and she created the communications director position shortly after her 2020 inauguration.
Thayer filled the role at $54,000 a year that January and immediately got to work updating the city's website and social media platforms.
"Our website was difficult to update for everyone, it had lots of old information on it and the navigation was hard to utilize for both residents and staff. So I started working on that on the first day, cleaning up content and adjusting how and where we were sharing information," she said.
Thayer also intended to begin work on the mayor's IAMesbury 2030 planning initiative that winter. Everything changed when the COVID-19 pandemic reached U.S. shores in March 2020, however.
Instead of letting residents know about traditional municipal issues such as school budgets and garbage collection schedules, Thayer was helping the mayor keep the city informed with COVID-19 case counts and making sure that all public meetings could be found online.
"I was dropped into the deep end, pretty quickly," she said.
The communications director quickly created a new section on the city's website dedicated to pandemic information and also launched an electronic newsletter.
"We really tried to be proactive with those communications about COVID, because we knew that people were anxious for information. They weren't always understanding the medical terminology, or what they were supposed to be doing, and that changed every day. So, that was my life for a while," Thayer said.
Thayer also worked closely with Amesbury Community Television and former City Clerk Christine Dixon to get all public meetings online and made sure the mayor was able to increase communication through what has become her weekly Facebook live appearances.
"That certainly wasn't something I expected to happen when I took the job," Thayer said.
Gove said she remembers her first Facebook live appearance well.
"Caitlin stuck her phone in my face and sat across from me, with a mask on. She was able to help by reading comments and facilitating a live conversation and it just advanced from there," she said.
Thayer quickly became known as an off-screen voice assisting the mayor during Facebook live appearances with questions from live-streaming residents and making the occasional helpful comment along the way.
"Having her always in the back of the room was certainly part of the dynamic, otherwise, it's just me talking to a screen. We were able to play off each other a little bit and help answer questions," Gove said of Thayer.
The mayor also made sure that Amesbury was crucial in the rollout of COVID-19 vaccines in 2021. The city hosted plenty of mass vaccination clinics last year and Thayer worked with the mayor and Fire Chief Ken Berkenbush to lobby the state for more vaccines, all while volunteering over 150 volunteer hours at the clinics herself.
"I was really proud of that initiative," she said.
The pandemic delayed Thayer's efforts to get the IAMesbury 2030 planning initiative off the ground in 2020 but she did launch it by the beginning of 2021.
She was also able to refresh the city's website in 2021, winning the Massachusetts Municipal Association's award for best website for a municipality with a population between 12,001-25,000 along the way. The city's website was completely relaunched this year.
"We have a real digital footprint. People have been able to access us in many different ways and all of those doors need to be open," Gove said.
Property taxes have always been a big issue in Amesbury, according to Thayer who said Gove's administration has made a point of letting everyone know just where their tax dollars are going with the publication of three dramatically-redesigned budget books and a pair of annual reports.
"Both the budget book and the annual report help to tell that well-rounded story of, 'here is where the money is going.' Then, at the end of the year, 'here is what this money did and how it helps and supports the community.' So we are really proud of what we were able to accomplish with those two documents," she said.
The Kittery, Maine, native has been living in Amesbury with her husband Joshua since 2016 and Thayer said she will continue to work with the Friends of the Amesbury Public Library, as well as the Amesbury Cultural Council.
"I'm really proud of the work I have done here and I have really enjoyed working with the team that's here. They work so hard for this community and are so dedicated to what they are doing. It has been wonderful to work with them," she said.
Gove said hiring the city's first communications director made a statement that delivering on her promise of increased transparency was critical to her administration. Thayer has been a highly-valued member of city government, who blazed a trail for others to follow and will be missed, according to the mayor.
"Caitlin is leaving big shoes to fill for whomever comes next. She demonstrated how important a role like this is in local government. We need to be able to speak to our constituents and communicate effectively and make sure that they understand what we are doing to serve them and how we are spending their tax dollars," Gove said.
Staff writer Jim Sullivan covers Amesbury and Salisbury for The Daily News. He can be reached via email at jsullivan@newburyportnews.com or by phone at 978-961-3145. Follow him on Twitter @ndnsully.
Staff writer Jim Sullivan covers Amesbury and Salisbury for The Daily News. He can be reached via email at jsullivan@newburyportnews.com or by phone at 978-961-3145. Follow him on Twitter @ndnsully.
