A Tale Of Two Town Boards – Old And New In Grafton
Grafton Town Officials Sworn In
By Doug La Rocque
This past year ended with a meeting of the 2015 version of the Grafton Town Board, the subject being the year end settlement of the books. The Board audited and approved all the outstanding bills and gave them to the bookkeeper to enter into the records. Maureen Seel will then gave the new Board a list of budget line transactions that need to be addressed at the first regular meeting, Monday January 11. [private]
The Board also took up an issue that was tabled at its previous meeting, raises for members of the town’s highway department. Highway Superintendent Herb Hasbrouck presented the board with fiscal evidence that he had enough monies in his budget lines to hand out the raises, without overspending these lines. No raises were contained in the 2016 budget as originally adopted. The board then voted 5-0 to approve the resolution. The raises will range from 2 to 3.5%, depending on length of service.
The meeting was then adjourned, with Councilwoman Messenger telling Supervisor Frank Higgins it has been a pleasure to work with him, and that “he will always be known as the Supervisor who brought a Time Warner Cable franchise to Grafton.”
Tom Withcuskey Appointed Deputy Town Supervisor
Change the year and change the makeup of the Board – gone are Supervisor Frank Higgins, and Councilmembers Rick Ungaro and Barb Messenger. In their place are Supervisor Ingrid Gundrum, and new councilmembers Eric Buckley and Lisa Dooley. With Gundrum’s ascension to Supervisor, her Board seat remains vacant until the next regular meeting. This new Board held its organizational meeting Monday January 4, with Gundrum naming long time town official Tom Withcuskey as her Deputy Supervisor. Her other appointments were keeping Maureen Seel as Town Bookkeeper, retaining Josef Allain has her confidential secretary for a transition period and re-appointing Sal Ferlazzo as Town Attorney.
Board action included keeping the second Monday of the month at 7 pm as the time for the regular meeting. The Board also reappointed Withcuskey as Planning Board Chairman and Codes Enforcement Officer. Beth Wagar was appointed the Planning Board Secretary and Jim Goyer was re-appointed to another five year term on the Planning Board. There are two openings on the Board of Assessment Review, but the Town received no letters of interest for the positions, and decided to re-advertise for them. Patricia Niebuhr was appointed Town Historian. The new Town Clerk, Kathy Mason-Wagar, appointed Vicky Burdett and Josef Allain as her deputies. Burdett was also appointed the Registar of Vital Statistics.[/private]