ROYALSTON – Former Hubbardston Town Administrator Nate Boudreau, who also served two years as town clerk for the town of Princeton, has been tapped to fill the part-time position of administrative assistant for the town of Royalston.
Boudreau – who once served as chief of staff for state Sen. Peter Durant, R-Spencer – was chosen following a search that got underway in July. At the June Annual Town Meeting, voters approved spending $25,000 to fund the position through the end of the current fiscal year. His first day on the job was Sept. 8.
Royalston Select Board Chair Bill Chapman told the Athol Daily News that Jeff Wright, who had done pro bono work for the board for several months, would assist Boudreau and paid out of the funds for the administrative assistant’s position that have gone unspent since the start of the fiscal year on July 1.
Chapman described this position as somewhat of a pilot program “to see if the town really can benefit from the position.”
“Whereas we haven’t used the first couple months of pay, we ended up hiring Nate Boudreau. But with everything that Jeff Wright has done on a voluntary basis, we felt the honorable thing to do is hire him to assist Nate in the transition,” Chapman added. “Jeff can help get Nate up to speed on everything that he has been working on since last November. And we can use the money that hasn’t been expended to give Jeff some compensation. We found a way to employ both parties and seemed like the best thing to do in the interest of the town.
“He has all the knowledge and connections,” said Chapman of Boudreau. “He knows how to do the grant writing, and he seemed like a really fine choice to kind of propel the town into a much more professional realm. He has a good grasp of modern policies and procedures, which the town really needs. Things are changing with technology and records requests and even the use of AI, and I think Nate is on the cutting edge of that stuff.”
Boudreau, who served five terms on the Gardner City Council, has a master’s degree in public administration from Clark University.
“Most of my career I’ve worked with pretty practical stuff; budgets, grants, procurement, technology and helping small towns figure out how to get things done with the resources they have,” said Boudreau.
“Royalston seemed like a good fit,” he continued. “I like municipal work, particularly in smaller communities where you can actually see the impact of getting something across the finish line. I’ll be supporting the Select Board and town staff with policies and procedures, grants, projects, and whatever else needs some attention. It’s part-time and I think everyone involved would admit we’re figuring out some of the details as we go, but I’m excited to get to work.”
In addition to the job in Royalston, Bourdreau is starting a small business, PublicLogic.
“It has a consulting and software side where we build practical tools and systems for towns, businesses, and other organizations, and hospitality side that includes the Lodge at Kendall Pond, our short-term rental in Gardner,” he said. “The part-time schedule in Royalston gives me the ability to keep building the business while staying involved in municipal government.”
The idea of giving the part-time administrative assistant’s position a test run arose after voters did not approve funding for the job in August 2025. By a margin of 153-125, voters at a special election defeated a proposed Proposition 2 ½ override that would have funded a full-time administrative assistant with an annual pay of $85,000. The part-time role is 19 hours a week and pays $25,000 a year, though does not come with benefits.