GUILDERLAND — Several new members were appointed to two of Guilderland’s committees — the Conservation Advisory Council and the Land Use Advisory Committee — and Jacqueline Coons was appointed to the permanent post of chief building and zoning inspector, at the town’s reorganizational meeting Tuesday night.

Coons started in the post provisionally in July 2016 and then waited more than a year for the Civil Service exam to be offered that would make it possible for the town to appoint her permanently.

She took the test in September, and, Supervisor Peter Barber announced Tuesday night, got a score of 100.

Coons said on Wednesday that she had meant to watch the reorganizational meeting on television but had missed it because all of the town’s meetings now start at 7 p.m., half an hour earlier than last year. The meeting was over by the time she tuned in.

She said that, while it was a relief to have the test out of the way and to have been appointed permanently, it didn’t really feel any different, since she has already “been acting in this capacity.”

She has changed her email signature, she said, and will need to remember to change her title on the legal notices she sends out.

Conservation Advisory Council

Guilderland’s Conservation Advisory Council is headed by longtime chairman John Wemple. His daughter is the town’s historian.

The committee gets involved, early on, Wemple told The Enterprise earlier, in any process in which a landowner is looking to have a property subdivided in order to develop it in some way. An applicant will often talk with the town planner and the town’s planning board before being referred to the CAC.

The council first hears a presentation from the applicant about the building plans and their potential effect on the topography, Wemple said. Council members ask questions of the applicant about the type of soil; angle of repose; presence of wetlands; items of historical significance on the property such as old barns or cemeteries; and any species, such as Karner blue butterflies or bats, that might be affected by development, Wemple said.

In the days following the presentation, the council goes to the property and makes its own observations, said Wemple.

Eventually the council “comes up with a conclusion that is basically a recommendation to the planning board,” he said, “which could be good, bad, or indifferent.”

Newly appointed to the CAC is Phil Rainer; a social worker, he is the chief clinical officer of the private not-for-profit Capital Counseling.

Rainer said this week that he has lived in Guilderland for over 20 years and has really enjoyed living in the town. He views the committee, he said, as an opportunity to contribute to the town and help support its responsible growth.

Rainer is interested in environmental responsibility, he said, and he believes that Guilderland can continue to grow and develop in ways that are respectful of the town’s environmental needs and that maintain its beautiful parks, spaces, and land.

Land Use Advisory Committee

There are two new members of the Land Use Advisory Committee, which is chaired by Kenneth Brownell. Created last year after the town’s adoption of a new zoning code, the Land Use Advisory Committee continues the work that the Zoning Review Committee had previously done, Barber told The Enterprise earlier.

Brownell, who chaired the Zoning Review Committee for seven years and serves as a liaison member of the Land Use Advisory Committee, told The Enterprise earlier that the Land Use Committee is concerned with economic issues and overall growth strategy and with taking up whatever issues may not be covered in the town’s new zoning code.

Abandoned buildings and vacant properties may be one of the board’s concerns as well, said Barber earlier. These are carefully considered in the new code, which defines the criteria a building must have to be declared “abandoned” and lays out steps the town can take to deal with abandoned buildings, he said. But the board may use its expertise in various fields to look at specific abandoned buildings and come up with new approaches for town officials or building owners to consider, he said.

The town has a new zoning code, but has not done a comprehensive land-use rezone in a long time; one thing this committee does is look at vacant properties to see if they might be appropriate for a rezone, Barber said this week.

Barber gave the example of the Governors Motor Inn, which is currently for sale and zoned for local business. The dominant interest in the property, he said, has been for use as garden apartments, which is not allowed in a local-business zone. The committee might discuss that issue, he said.

He noted that the committee has a remarkable depth of experience. It includes Coons, planning board Chairman Stephen Feeney, zoning board Chairman Thomas Remmert, and Industrial Development Agency Chairman William Young, as well as local businessman Ted Danz and civil engineer Hank LaBarba. Councilman Lee Carman is the town board liaison to the committee.

Sometimes, Barber said, he starts out with one perspective on an issue and comes around to a completely different perspective, because of the input from committee members.

In response to an Enterprise question, Barber said that he would expect board members to disclose any conflicts of interest that might arise.

The new members are:

— James Runko: Runko, 55, lives and works in Guilderland and has spent his entire career in capital finance and economic development, he said this week. He has worked on Wall Street and for First Albany, but now works for himself, financing commercial real-estate projects. He has two children in college locally.

Of his reasons for joining the committee, Runko said: “This is where I live, where I drive, where I work, where I play, so I just want to make sure I can add my two cents.”

— Michelle Viola-Straight: Viola-Straight is the new president, since July, of the Guilderland Chamber of Commerce. She is also a trustee of the Guilderland Public Library.

She owns the Route 20 Cafe & Newsstand.

Viola-Straight said that the role of the committee, which meets several times a year, as needed, is to look at specific buildings “that need to be tweaked a little bit,” whether to bring them up to current safety standards or to make them more appealing.

She said, in response to an Enterprise question, that her interest in serving on the committee is not in filling rural areas of the town with new businesses.

The Chamber of Commerce, she said, promotes the businesses that the town already has and promotes the area.

Essential to that, she said, is “a balance of everything,” and she does not want to see Guilderland turn into “a city-type atmosphere.”