Amenia Town Board preps for ‘21

AMENIA — Taking each resolution and appointment, the Town Board set its sights on a brighter future at the annual reorganizational meeting on Thursday, Jan. 7.

The entire board met via videoconference due to the COVID-19 pandemic; it was live streamed to the “AmeniaTV” YouTube channel.

The board established its business workshop meetings will be held on the first Thursday of the month and the regular meetings will be held on the third Thursday of the month; both meetings will be held at 7 p.m. at Amenia Town Hall. After establishing the salaries for both elected and appointed town officials, the board appointed Ian Lindars as attorney to the town at $200 an hour and Shane Egan as attorney for tax certioraris matters at $245 an hour.

Moving on to town appointments and salaries, the board appointed Marge Arnold as bookkeeper at 22 hours a week for $27.05 per hour, while Lorna Sherman was appointed alternate per diem bookkeeper at $25 per hour. Katrina Gore-Alexander was appointed treasurer of the Water District at a salary of $4,086 as well as senior typist for the evening hours at 16 hours a week for $19.04 per hour. Nancy Nowak was appointed clerk of the Water District at a salaried $4,086 and as a typist at $16.08 per hour.

At $175 an hour, Hilarie Thomas was appointed town court special prosecutor while Kimberley Rea, Esq., was appointed attorney for Old Amenia Landfill at $200 an hour. 

Town Supervisor Victoria Perotti was appointed budget officer with a salary of $7,283, while Annette Culligan was appointed secretary to the supervisor at $16.79 an hour. The board appointed Michael Segelken as building inspector at 32 hours a week for $28.48 per hour.

Judy Westfall was appointed clerk for the morning hours for 16 hours a week at $16.62 an hour, and later secretary for the Planning Board for 24 hours a week at $16.62 per hour.  Town Clerk Dawn Marie Klingner was appointed registrar of vital statistics at $10 per transaction and tax collector with a salary of $6,881.

For the Zoning Board of Appeals (ZBA), Susan Metcalfe was appointed secretary for 15 hours a week at $18.44 per hour and Terry Metcalfe was appointed ZBA chairman with a $2,000 stipend. For the Planning Board, Robert Boyles Jr. was appointed chairman with a $2,745 stipend. Dave Everett, Esq., was appointed attorney to both the ZBA and the Planning Board at a rate of $225 per hour.

Ericka Howard was appointed deputy town clerk at a rate of $16.46 per hour while Patricia Sawicki was appointed second deputy town clerk at $15.45 per hour. Donna Morrison was appointed to the assessor’s clerk position with a $17,836 salary, while John Lloyd and Donna Dipippo were appointed real property data listers, each at a rate of $18.56 per hour. Christopher Klingner was appointed constable at $18.45 an hour; the board also appointed Jason Dean, Duewayne Jackson, Francis Lansing and Abdur Muhammad as constables with varying salaries. 

Maureen Moore was appointed court clerk for the Honorable Norman Moore with a $17,857 salary, while Dawn Marie Klingner was appointed court clerk for the Honorable James Devine with a $17,163 salary.

Paul Voorhees was appointed working supervisor for the Highway Department at a rate of $25.86 per hour, while Darren Peterson, Preston Vincent, John Williams and Jay Spock were all appointed highway equipment operators with varying salaries. 

Judith Carlson was appointed account clerk typist for 15 hours a week at $17.30 per hour. At a rate of $16.46 an hour, James Morse was appointed custodian, while Shawn Howard was appointed groundskeeper at a rate of $19.79 per hour and Charles Mayville was appointed assistant recreation groundskeeper at $16.79 per hour. Kelly Milano was appointed recreation supervisor at a rate of $15.45 per hour. 

Lastly, the board appointed Michael Hagerty as a grant writer at $29.13 an hour; Michael Flint as an audio visual technician at a salary of $6,535; and Maria Genovese as the animal control officer at a salary of $9,795.

Following the annual appointments, the board executed an agreement to spend highway funds totaling $200,655.67 in 2021 and then approved the various town appointments without salaries and a resolution to approve $1 million bonding for town officials. The mileage reimbursement was established at the federal rate of 56 cents a mile. The town’s contract with SEBI Environmental Services Inc. for water treatment to the water district was renewed for $34,000. 

Bank of Millbrook and Salisbury Bank & Trust were designated as the town’s official depositories, and The Millerton News was designated as the town’s official newspaper.

Perotti read aloud her supervisor’s goals, which included planning the construction and financing of a new highway garage and salt shed, researching feasibility study grant options for a wastewater system downtown and completing the town website’s upgrade through its shared services plan with Dutchess County Office of Central and Information Services.