Town of Richmondville officials are planning an addition to Town Hall. Photo by Chris English.
By Chris English
RICHMONDVILLE — Jillian Smith is out and Morgan Kraemer is in as dog control officer in the Town of Richmondville.
The town board voted unanimously at its Thursday, July 11 meeting to terminate its relationship with Smith in regard to both her dog control officer and constable roles. Board members then hired Kraemer as DCO by the same unanimous vote.
Supervisor Jeffrey Haslun and Councilmen Eric Haslun, Harry Rode, George Horning and Todd Sperbeck all voted yes on both motions. The actions came late in the meeting after a 20-minute executive session to discuss the DCO situation.
Earlier in the meeting, town Clerk Maggie Smith read a letter from a resident that indicated rather serious dissatisfaction with Smith's response to a dog biting incident on Franzen Road. In the letter, the resident recounted how a neighbor's dog _ running loose _ lunged at him twice and broke skin on the second try. "The dog had behaved aggressively toward me in the past," the man wrote in the letter. He added that the dog's owner could not control the animal.
The resident who had been bitten wrote in the letter that Smith took a long time to return his calls and that when she did, she left a message indicating that her intended course of action _ in the resident's opinion _ was not nearly strong enough to meet the situation. He called that situation "dangerous and unacceptable."
Smith had little to say in an emailed response to this newspaper soon after the July 11 meeting.
"I was not requested to be at the town board meeting and therefore do not know what was discussed and cannot make a comment due to lack of information provided to me," she wrote. After being given a summary of actions regarding her at the July 11 meeting by this newspaper, Smith did not respond further.
Smith is also DCO for several other nearby towns and Jeffrey Haslun said it would be up to those towns to decide what to do about Smith's continued services. Haslun declined to comment further on the matter after the July 11 meeting. He added that Kraemer's hiring is only for the DCO job and that town officials are not sure yet what to do about the now vacant constable position.
The news from Richmondville comes at a time when control of dogs and other problem animals has become a frequent topic of discussion throughout Schoharie County. Some have suggested hiring a county-level animal control officer.
In other news from the July 11 Richmondville meeting, Jeffrey Haslun said he is optimistic about his request for $1 million from the state for 2025 that would help fund the town's planned $13 million sewer project that would provide public sewer service to much of the Town of Richmondville.
"We should know by the end of the month," Haslun said of the $1 million request. He added the town will have $5.7 million from a federal program for the project, $300,000 from Schoharie County and is seeking other sources of funding.
There was also a brief discussion of a planned expansion of Town Hall of about 1,000 square feet that would provide more efficient access to both town and court operations, and also provide more storage space for both.
Jeffrey Haslun said the town will try for $30,000 in grant money for the project through the state of New York court system. He added there is not yet a firm estimate on the total cost of the addition.
The town will move forward with a free computer program called Helixintell through its insurance company NYMIR. The program should help Highway Superintendent Brian Manchester keep track of the age and mileage of the department's equipment and aid in tracking road work and with other areas, Haslun noted.
"Sounds good, sounds like a good program," Sperbeck said.
Manchester and Haslun reported that a large new plow truck ordered by the town at a cost not to exceed $325,000 should start production by the end of August and, hopefully, be delivered early in the first quarter of 2025.
In his report, Manchester said town crews have recently replaced several cross culverts and installed shoulders on several roads. Haslun said there have so far been five applicants for the vacant court clerk position.
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