There is a special Board Meeting tonight for the town.  Was this advertised?  I don’t think so.  Let me refresh the Town Clerk on Article 7 of the Public Officers Law which constitutes the Open Meeting Law (OML).  As a general state statute, applicable to the state and local governments, their boards and commissions, including public authorities, it requires that all meetings of a public body, with certain exceptions, be open to the public. 

In brief, the law gives the public the right to attend meetings of public bodies, listen to debates and watch the decision-making process in action.

What is a meeting?  “Meeting” is defined to mean “the official convening of a public body for the purpose of conducting public business.”  As such, any time a quorum of a public body gathers for the purpose of discussing public business, the meeting must be convened open to the public, whether or not there is an intent to take action, and regardless of the manner in which the gathering may be characterized.

Notice of Meetings- The law requires that notice of the time and place of all meetings be given prior to every meeting.

If a meeting is scheduled at least a week in advance, notice must be given to the public and news media not less than 72 hours prior to the meeting.  Notice to the public must be accomplished by posting in one or more designated public locations.

When a meeting is scheduled less than a week in advance, notice must be given to the public and news media “to the extent practicable” at a reasonable time prior to the meeting.  Again, notice to the public must be given by means of posting.

The bulletin board maintained by the town clerk, as well as the entrance to the town offices would be considered as public locations.

When Can a Meeting be Closed?  The Open Meetings Law provides for closed or “executive” sessions under circumstances prescribed in the law.  It is important to emphasize that an executive session is not seperate from an open meeting, but rather is defined as a portion of an open meeting during which the public may be excluded.

To close a meeting for an executive session, the law requires that a public body take several procedural steps.  FIRST, a motion must be made during an open meeting to enter into executive session; SECOND; the motion must identify “the general area or areas of the subject or subjects to be considered; and THIRD, the motion must be carried by a majority vote of the total membership of a public body.  Futher a public body cannot close its doors to the public to discuss the subject of its choice, for the law specifies and limits the subject matter that may appropriately be discussed in excessive session.  The eight subjects that mey be discussed behind closed doors include:

1. matter which will imperil the public safety if disclosed;
2. any matter which may disclose the identity of a law enforcement agency or informer;
3. information relating to current or future invesigation or prosecution of a criminal offense which would imperil effective law enforcement if disclosed;
4. discussions regarding proposed, pending or current litigation;
5. collective negotiations pursuant to Article 14 of the Civil Service Law (The Taylor Law);
6. the medical, financial, credit or employment history of a particular person or corporation, or matters leading to the appointment, employment, promotion, demotion, discipline, suspension, dismissal or removal of a particular person or corporation;
7. the preparation, grading or administration examinations; and
8. the proposed acquisition, sale or lease of real propery or the proposed acquisition of securities, or sales or exchange of securities held by such public body, but only when publicity would substantially affect the value thereof.

These are the only subjects that my be discussed behind closed doors; all other deliberations must be conducted during open meetings.

A public body can never vote to appropriate moneys during a closed session.  Although most public bodies may vote during a properly convened executive session, any vote to expend public monies must be takin in public.

AFTER MEETING MINUTES:  The Open Meetings Law requires that minutes of both open meetings and executive sessions must be compiled and made available.

 In short, this meeting should have been advertised but of course it wasn’t.  We have a pretty good Town Board now, too bad they have a bad support staff to do the day to day work.

tags: Meetings, Minutes, Open Meetings Law

On March 5, 1839 the Town of Wirt was made into a town with the following officers elected:

Supervisor: Jonah French
Town Clerk: Azariah Randolph
Commissioner of Highways: Joseph Allen
Collector: Abner B. Cole
Commissioners of Common Schools: Edward Wightman, Calvin Wheeler, Sheldon P. Stanton
Overseers of the Poor: Ezekiel Johnson and Chauncey Axtell
Inspectors of Common Schools: Clark Rogers, Pliny Evans, Ezekiel R. Clark
Constables: Abner B. Cole, Alan Stanton, John Truman
Sealer of Weights and Measures: John W. Jordan

Minutes of the first meeting were read as follows:

Resolved: That the annual meeting be held the first Tuesday of March each year.
Resolved: That we elect officers as listed above.
Resolved: That we raise as much money as the law will allow.
Resolved: That the meeting stand adjourned.

Old ledgers record that the annual meetings were usually held at the homes of the officers until March 4, 1854 when the meetings were held at the Forrest House.

During the years 1863, 1864 and 1865 any special meetings were called for the purpose of procuring Volunteers for the War Between the States.

December 23, 1863 at a special meeting it was-

Resolved- That the Town of Wirt shall pay to each volunteer, who shall enlist under the President’s call of October 17, 1863 or have enlisted, who shall apply on said call when mustered into the service of the United States the sum of $300.00 to be paid in bounty orders bearing interest from date as follows; the sum of $100.00 the first day of March 1866 and $100.00 the first day of March 1867. Said orders to be payable to the order of the Supervisor of Said Town.

William Withey, Town Clerk

Nine additional meetings were called for the procuring of Volunteers and moneys appropriated for them.

Fourteen men from the Town of Wirt joined the Union Army at the beginning of the War Between the States. Others volunteered from time to time. Fourteen died on the battlefields while six died in Andersonville Prison.

Cassius Maxson Post GAR was established in Richburg at the close of the war and flourished for any years, but ceased to function when the men who wore the blue, one by one, passed away. Crandall Lester, Richburg’s last GAR veteran passed away in 1924 at the age of 84. He served with the 160^th regiment, New York Volunteers as Sergeant. He was honorably discharged October 17, 1864.

Taken from “The History of the Town of Wirt and Village of Richburg”

tags: History, town board

At the beginning of this month’s meeting, the board heard a presentation from Nancy Weiss (?). Nancy is a representative from New York CLASS (A cooperative investment program). With this program the town will bring in much more interest revenue. One way they will earn more interest, not just by a higher interest rate, is that interest can be earned on all the money not just what the town has chosen to invest and the interest will be compounded daily instead on monthly. There are already several towns, villages, school districts that have participated in this program for years.

The meeting was called to order by Mr. Howard at 7:32 p.m. by Mr. Howard with the Pledge of Allegiance. The minutes from last month were approved after a couple of corrections were made. The minutes should read: “Mr. Robert Dunbar complained that he could not get the minutes within 2 weeks of the board meeting. The board replied Jane is doing what we told her to do. After some discussion it was decided that Jane WILL make the minutes public WITHIN two weeks with the word “Draft” on top of the paper”. The other change was that $200.00 will be paid to Kevin Hamilton not the Utopia Cemetery Association.

Public Comments:

Larry Thompson addressed the Board about the property located beside his property on the Watson Road that is owned by Jack Dell of North Tonawanda. Mr. Thompson stated that this is the 3^rd or 4^th time that he has addressed the board concerning the abandoned junk camper trailers on the property. Mr. Thompson spoke to Paul Sadler, Code Enforcement Officer, prior to building his new home and was informed that the trailers were in violation of the Junk Law that was adopted in 1965 and they would be taken care of. This is now 2 years later and they are still there. Mr. Sadler stated that he has sent Mr. Dell a certified letter but it came back unsigned. Mr. Dunbar stated that under the law that is enough proof to prove than an effort was made to contact a person and that he should proceed with the next step. Want to take bets on whether or not Mr. Thompson will have to go back to the board? My bet is that he will.

Theresa Baldwin requested that a cigarette butt container be placed outside the town hall so that everyone doesn’t have to look at the mess. Mr. Scott asked Curt if he would get a bucket with some sand and place out there.

Fred Tompkins, Mayor of Richburg, made a request that some of the town’s gravel be moved back by the town barn on Mill Street. The village plans on milling the street and paving it this summer. They would like it below street level. Curt stated he would get that done.

Fiscal Report: The fiscal report was approved once changes were made.

Town Clerk Report: Jane reported that the taxes balance this year. (What she failed to do was to give a big “Thank You” to the Town of Bolivar and Alma Clerks for all their help in making this happen) and that she collected 83% of the taxes for the Town “The Most in the County per Terry Ross”. Funny I thought the big “atta boy” should go to the town of Independence for collecting 93%.

Curt Rung presented his highway report and stated that the Clair Carrier Road had been ditched from one end to the other. Mike Scott thanked Curt for doing actually finishing a road that was started.

Assessors Report: Alice handed out her assessor’s report.

The General Bills were approved to be paid with the total amount of $4,032.07. They were all approved with the exception of the National Fuel bill which is still not correct.

The Highway Bills were approved to be paid with the total amount of $32,483.92.

At the close of the meeting, the Board passed a resolution to proceed with the NY CLASS program.

Town Budget as of May 12, 2008

Highway Superintendent Report May 12, 2008

Assessor Report May 12, 2008

tags: assessor, budget, Meetings, superintendent

On July 12, 1884 a cyclone passed over this portion of Allegany County and struck the farm of Alonzo Mead, on the West Notch Road. Mrs. Mead was preparing a codfish for cooking. A tin dipper stood on the table, and on a nail in the wall hung a pair of hickory overalls. Mr. Mead was standing in his barn door talking with Farmer Wightman, a neighbor, who had driven into the barn with his wife to wait until the shower they supposed was coming up had passed over. Suddenly there came a loud roaring from the direction of Southwest Hill and Farmer Mead saw first a grove of of large maples coming toward the barn and house, in the air, carried along by what seemed to be a funnel-shaped cloud of black smoke. A half second later nearly all the trees in Mead’s orchard had mingled with the flying maple grove and all were rushing along at a frightful velocity. Farmer Mead started to run to the house to warn his wife. He was caught up on his way by the whirling mass and carried with it a hundred yards and deposited in a rye field. Simultaneously the house and barn were lifted up and carried along in crashing fragments with the whirlwind. The passing of the cyclone was but momentary. Not more than five seconds elapsed from the time it was first seen sweeping from down from Southwest Hill by Farm Mead until it had disappeared in the northeast. Mead was uninjured by his sudden journey through the air, and as soon as he could recover himself he ran toward the ruins of his house, expecting to find his wife crushed to death or borne away. Only a small portion of the house was left standing. Mrs. Mead was in the cellar, where she had hurried at the approach of the hurricane and was uninjured. Mead found Farmer Wightman and his wife imprisoned by heavy timers in the barn. A pile of hay and caught the timbers at the end and prevented them falling with full weight on the farmer and his wife. They were both held firmly beneath the timbers, however, and Mrs. Wightman was badly hurt. To lift one end of the timbers today Farmer Mead says he would require the aid of at least two men, but on that day he raised them alond and threw the ends up on a beam four feet high and rescued his neighbors from their perilous situation. How he managed to handle the heavy timbers he is unable to explain.

Every piece of furniture was carried out of Farmer Mead’s house. Fragments of it have been found along the course of the cyclone as far as a mile away. On Wednesday parties who were searching in the woods for missing cattle three miles from Mead’s farm found hanging in a tree a codfish and a pair of hickory overalls, and lying on the ground beneath the tree was a tin dipper. These have been identified as the fish Mrs. Mead was preparing when the cyclone came along, the dipper that stood on the table, and the garmet that hung on the wall. They are the the only articles that Farmer Mead has recovered intact.

The three children of Stewart Shinebarger were playing in the yard when the cyclone appeared. After the storm had passed search was made for them. They had been carried over a hundred feet and thrown against a barbed wire fense, where they were found entangled, with their clothing nearly all torn from them and their flesh badly lacerated by the sharp barbs in the fence.

This article was published in the New York Times on July 13, 1884

tags: History, weather