NORTH SMITHFIELD – After five and a half years as the town’s building and zoning official, Kerry Anderson retired from the role, effective Friday, April 1, with plans to finally spend a bit more time on his longtime passion of music and to complete some projects on his Warwick home.
Town Administrator Paul Zwolenski plans to recommend Lawrence Enright, the building official from neighboring Woonsocket, to fill the position. The pick was scheduled to be discussed at the Town Council meeting on Monday, April 4, but was tabled when Zwolenski was unable to attend.
Anderson, an Attleboro, Mass. native, came to North Smithfield in 2016 from a job in West Warwick. His career as a building official, which began in Tiverton in 2003, has also included stints in Providence and Cranston.
“Of the five places I’ve been, this has been the best,” Anderson told NRI NOW on Friday, his last day at Town Hall. “It’s a nice community… nice people, and the people in this building are just the best.”
What residents may not have known while working with Anderson on various code and inspection issues is that music has long been the building official’s true passion. He received a degree in music from Berklee College before ultimately deciding to make a living in municipal offices.
“I made a meager living at it. When I had a family, that had to go,” he said of the prior creative career, to which he now hopes to dedicate more time. “You never stop playing, it just takes a different direction.”
Town officials held a breakfast celebration congratulating Anderson on the retirement this week.
“It’s been a pleasure working with such a professional,” Zwolenski said.
The town received several applications to fill the role and the administrator’s top pick, Enright, will soon go before the council.
A Cumberland native, Enright comes to the job with three decades of experience in communities in Rhode Island and Massachusetts, including more than 20 years in Woonsocket, where he was first hired as a sewer utilities worker in 1989.
Enright was Woonsocket’s zoning officer when he left the city in 2011 to take on a role as deputy zoning official in Smithfield. He served as senior state building code official for the state of Rhode Island from 2016-2018, and also worked in North Kingstown, before returning to Woonsocket in 2020.
Soon, he’ll leave the city once again to join the team in North Smithfield – the third employee from Wonsocket to be hired by the town in recent years. The late Tax Assessor Joe Marciano worked in North Smithfield before his death in January, and Vanny Mey left Woonsocket to take on the role she currently holds as the town’s trash and recycling coordinator.
Happy retirement Sir! Hope to see some of that musical talent featured here soon!