Hubbard Resigns As Petersburgh Supervisor

Schaaphok Appointed By Board
by Alex Brooks
At a special meeting of the Petersburgh Town Board on Saturday, June 27, Mason Hubbard submitted his resignation as Town Supervisor. At the same meeting, Hubbard asked the Board to appoint Deputy Supervisor Peter Schaaphok as Town Supervisor to succeed him. The Board accepted Hubbard’s recommendation and unanimously voted for Schaaphok’s appointment.
Schaaphok will serve through the remainder of the calendar year, and the November election will determine who will serve as Town Supervisor in 2010.
Mason Hubbard had heart surgery around Christmas time, and, in the aftermath of the surgery, his doctor had advised him to avoid stressful situations. He had thought this would be a temporary situation, and he could return to his job after a few months, but experience has proven otherwise, and after consulting with his doctor last week, Hubbard decided he ought to step down. He said, “It’s only fair to the Board and to Peter for me to step down now. It has been difficult to have just a four member Board, with Peter not having a vote.” Now that Schaaphok has been appointed as Supervisor, he is able to vote on Town resolutions.
Hubbard said he is glad that Schaaphok was ready and willing to step in for him. “He has the experience, and he knows where everything stands.”
Schaaphok agreed that the role of being Acting Supervisor has been “odd.” He said, “I’ve been in charge, but not fully in charge.” Schaaphok said he has no particular goals for the Town now that he is at the helm, except to keep a close eye on the budget and make sure that taxes stay “steady.” He said he will probably run for his own term as Supervisor in the fall, but he won’t fully make up his mind on that matter until caucus time in September. “We’ll see what it looks like then.” He said he feels pretty much up to speed at this point, although he continues to dip into the files and catch up on some of the finer points of the issues the Town has been involved in over the past decade (and sometimes finds there papers from his own earlier stint as Supervisor).
Schaaphok served as Petersburgh’s Town Supervisor for four years starting in 1992 and also served as Town Councilman for four years from 1998 to 2002. He has also served on the Board of Assessment Review, as Town Historian for many years and as Deputy Supervisor in recent years.
Mason Hubbard has served as Supervisor for 14 years. He succeeded Schaaphok in 1996 and has remained on the job since then. During that time the Town acquired the old School building and turned it into the Town Hall, which allowed the library to double in size. He secured hundreds of thousands of dollars of grant money and made major improvements to the Town’s water system, including new wells. And most recently he has overseen the renovations of the Veterans Memorial Hall. “I’ve done everything I could for the Town. I’m proud of what we’ve accomplished while I’ve been Supervisor,” he said.
Asked what is the most difficult thing about being Supervisor, he said a lot of the things the Town does are subject to mandates and regulations from authorities on the State and Federal level, which “don’t necessarily make sense,” and “it can get very involved” navigating through all these requirements. Peter Schaaphok made a similar comment about the Supervisor’s job being different now than it was when he began as Supervisor in the early 90s. He said there are a lot more regulations from the State and Federal governments regulating what towns can do.
Lastly, Mason Hubbard said he would like to thank the people of Petersburgh for having faith in him all these years.”