Weather doesn't stop Wheatfield meeting

by Susan Mikula Campbell

Falling temperatures, wind, snow and ice brought many cancellations Monday evening, but the Wheatfield Town Board persevered, holding its annual reorganization meeting and a short regular meeting.

During the reorganization meeting:

•Councilman Larry Helwig was appointed as deputy supervisor for 2014.

•The Niagara-Wheatfield Tribune was again designated as one of the two official newspapers for the town.

•Board liaisons to various departments, committees and focus groups were appointed, including Helwig to the assessor/Payroll Department, to the Greenway Trail/River Road Park and to computer systems/technology; Councilmen Gil Doucet and Art Gerbec to the Building Department, to the Water/Sewer Department and to the Recreation Department; Supervisor Bob Cliffe to the budget director; Gerbec to Comprehensive Planning Task Force and to the Veterans Committee; Doucet to the constable department, to the Safety Committee, and to the town attorney and town clerk; new Councilman Randy Retzlaff to drainage and the Farmers Focus Group; Cliffe and Helwig to economic development; Retzlaff and Helwig to the Highway Department; Town Attorney Bob O'Toole to the Justice Court.

•Gerbec was also appointed as Town Board representative to the Wheatfield Fire Advisory Board, with members of the volunteer fire companies as follows: Donald Lauer and Scott Leadersdorf at Adams; Mark Stevens and Keith Potter at Bergholz; Bruce Mack and Richard Silvaroli at Frontier; Gary Ziomek and Mike Scive at St. Johnsburg; and Marc Kasprzak and Frederick Lawrence at Shawnee.

•Robin Zastrow was again appointed head constable with Robert Connery as his deputy. Other constables reappointed for 2014 were Jon Doucet, Kenneth Johnson, Marc Kasprzak, Brian Kroening, Earl Meacham, Craig Schultz, Jerome Sperrazza and Eric Weber.

•Don Wallace was appointed information security officer and Helwig was appointed chief information officer. Cliffe noted these were new, non-pay positions while the town formalizes its new computer policy.

The board appointed former Councilman Kenneth Retzlaff to a five-year term on the Zoning Board of Appeals.

Other appointments and reappointments included: Kathleen Harrington-McDonnell as registrar of vital statistics; Wendel Duchscherer as town engineers and consultants to the planning board; O'Toole as town attorney; Walter Bissett as historian; Ed Mongold as budget director; Terry McIntyre as chairman of the Zoning Board of Appeals; Richard Muscatello as chairman of the Planning and Zoning Board; Doug Guenther as bingo inspector; Greg Martin as deputy highway superintendent and chairman of the Drainage Committee; and Raymond Camann as plumbing inspector.

•The salaries of town elected officials were fixed as established in the 2014 budget, including: Cliffe, supervisor, $37,324; Helwig, deputy supervisor, $17,232; Kathleen Harrington-McDonnell, town clerk, $61,280; John Mattio and Erin DeLabio, town justices, $23,846 each; Councilmen Gerbec, Retzlaff, Doucet, $13,630; Arthur Kroening, highway superintendent, $65,100.

•The board authorized the occasional services of Wild Kritters of Niagara County for assistance with wild animal control. The occasional services of David Muir also was approved as a licensed nuisance wildlife control officer.

During the regular meeting, Cliffe asked Rich Donner, water/sewer superintendent, if the Community Center was prepared to provide lights and heat so it could be used as an emergency shelter if ever needed. Donner said the building does have emergency generators, but they have not been tested.

The next regular Town Board meeting will be held at 7:30 p.m. Jan. 27. Prior to the regular meeting, public hearings will be held at 7 p.m. on revising town code relating to policy and procedure for procurement of goods and services and at 7:15 p.m. regarding amending the zoning code regarding density calculations for planned unit development zones.