GUILDERLAND — The town’s reorganizational meeting that opened the new year on Jan. 3 may have set a record for speed, at just 15 minutes.

Highlights included Town Supervisor Peter Barber thanking two long-time town officials who have retired effective Dec. 31: Jan Weston as town planner, and Alice Begley as town historian (see earlier article on Begley’s retirement).

Weston held the job of planner since 1988. She declined an interview.

Barber told The Enterprise that, over that time, Weston had provided professional comments to the town reviewing boards on “I think every single commercial or private property project.” At the meeting, he said her work has always been based on sound planning principles and sensitivity to the environment and that she “gets a lot of credit for the way the town looks now and the way it will look in the future.”

Planning Board Chairman Stephen Feeney said by phone that Weston has been the “point person” for the town for many years, and that it will not be easy to replace her experience and institutional knowledge.

Acting Chief Building and Zoning Inspector Jacqueline M. Coons told The Enterprise that Weston was the first person who worked full-time doing what she did, working with applicants throughout the building process, and that she will leave a “large void.”

According to an archived Enterprise article from 1988, Weston and Donald Cropsey Jr. divided the job done by Paul Empie until his retirement. Cropsey, who had been assistant building inspector, took over as chief building inspector, while Weston was hired as planner. Previously, Empie had been both zoning and planning coordinator and chief building inspector.

At the meeting Tuesday night, incoming planning board member William Meehan signed Clerk Jean Cataldo’s oath book. A retired resident of McKownville who headed a research unit at the State Department of Labor, Meehan takes over for Bruce Sherwin. Sherwin was filling in for an unexpired term and did not seek reappointment.

Meehan comes to the planning board, he said, after serving for “five or six years” on the Board of Assessment Review. He is also a member of the McKownville Improvement Association.

At the meeting, Barber and board member Paul Pastore also thanked John Wemple, chairman of the Conservation Advisory Board, for his “detailed” and “impressive” annual report on the board’s activities over the past year.

The meeting was over so fast that Town Attorney James Melita, having apparently forgotten the 7 p.m. early start time, arrived after it had already ended.