After more than 20 years of service to the DeWitt Town Board, Kenneth Andrews will be leaving his seat as a town councilor to move to the Onondaga County Sheriff’s Department as the chief deputy to the civil department.

Andrews was elected to the town board in 1993 and served as chair to the engineer committee for 18 years. In addition, he served as Police Commissioner for 18 years and chair to the police committee for 14 years.

“I have truly loved being a representative for DeWitt and I will miss it and all the hardworking dedicated employees of the town of DeWitt,” said Andrews.

At the Dec. 22 meeting of the DeWitt Town Board, Andrews was recognized with a plaque for his many years of service to the town of DeWitt.

“I really respect Ken and on a number of situations, we have not agreed, but we never took it personal,” said Ed Michalenko, DeWitt town supervisor. “He’s done an outstanding job on a number of police decisions and will be moving onto bigger things at the sheriff’s department.”

Andrews was chosen by Sheriff Gene Conway to serve as a member of his command staff.

“When sheriff-elect Conway offered me the position of chief of the civil division in the sheriff’s office is was an opportunity I could not turn down. My responsibility will be centered around the administration end of the sheriff’s office including the budgeting function, which has been getting a fair amount of attention over the last few years,” Andrews said. “I look forward to working with the new team of leadership and continuing to work with Gene Conway, who is going to make a tremendous sheriff.”

Also at the meeting, the board:

—Approved changes that will be made to the current time clock system that is used for town of DeWitt municipal employees.

Currently, department heads or administrative assistants in departments manually submit time clock information for employees, so there is possibility for error, said Michalenko.

With this new system, which will cost $880 per month, employees would be able to clock-in on their computers or cell phones, which Michalenko said will free up labor time that was previously used to manually submit time clock information.

Under the new system, department heads would then review the time clock sheets and submit them for payroll.

“It would be implemented with our current PayChex system and would eliminate a lot of time labor we’ve been doing over the years,” Michalenko said. “It also eliminates a whole lot of error.”

The board approved to implement this new time clock system.

—Approved the sale of four one-way snowplows at $2000 per plow to the city of Fulton.

—Set a public hearing at the next board meeting on Monday, Jan. 12, at 7:45 p.m., to discuss proposed code changes that have been recommended from the planning board.

These changes include updating solar panel and LED lighting laws, according to Michalenko.

Hayleigh Gowans is a reporter for the Eagle Bulletin. She can be reached at [email protected].