During its first regular meeting of 2014, the Fenner Town Board convened with a new supervisor, one new town board member, one vacant board seat and a slew of reorganizational appointments and decisions, which included the moving of the monthly town board meetings to a different day of the week.
Supervisor Dave Jones and Councilors Bill Cody and Hannah Strack all attended their first board meeting since being sworn-in to their respective offices after the November election. While Cody is new to the board, Strack was reelected to her seat and Jones moved jobs from that of a councilor to the supervisor.
The main order of business for the Jan. 8 regular monthly meeting was for annual reorganizational appointments. The majority of town officers and appointments stayed the same from 2013, with a few exceptions: Jones was officially selected to be the town budget officer, Strack was named deputy town supervisor, Councilor Bill Wester was appointed to the Youth Recreation Committee (to replace retired Councilor Hank Stoker), James Burke and Paula Douglas were named to the town planning board and Oneida Savings was named the town’s sole banking institution.
The board also unanimously voted to increase the hourly wages of the zoning board of appeals secretary and the deputy town clerk by $1 per hour each. This would increase the ZBA secretary to $9 per hour from $8 per hour, and the deputy town clerk to $10 per hour from $9 per hour. This action was taken upon the recommendation of Strack based on the increase in the New York state minimum wage to $9 per hour.
The board also unanimously agreed to change the day of their regular monthly meeting from the second Wednesday of every month to the second Thursday of every month. The scheduled times of their monthly meetings also have been changed.
Fenner has met on a split schedule with meetings during the months of November through April being held at 12:30 p.m.; and meetings May through October held at 8 p.m. The board unanimously agreed last week to change that schedule to holding meetings at 12:30 p.m. January through March, and at 8 p.m. April through December. This was done to better accommodate the schedules of current board members as well as of potential candidates to fill the vacant town board seat, Jones said.
No action was taken to fill the vacant seat. Jones said the board still needs to discuss the vacancy, although there is “no hurry” to do so because the board is not legally mandated to fill the seat immediately. The board, in fact, could choose not to fill the seat with a temporary appointee at all and instead wait until this November when a special election will be held, Jones said.
Also at the meeting, the board approved a resolution to give Jones the authority to purchase a new 2014 Ford F250 truck for the town highway department at a cost not to exceed $23,850.88. The vote passed 3-1 with Wester noting no.
Jason Emerson is editor of the Cazenovia Republican. He can be reached at [email protected].
