NEW SCOTLAND — Having just been sworn in to his ninth two-year term as the town’s highway superintendent, Darrell Duncan will likely take a post as the county’s commissioner of public works.

New Scotland doesn’t have a deputy highway superintendent.  “We have no contingency plan,” said New Scotland’s supervisor, Thomas Dolin, who learned about the appointment late last week.  The town board met in executive session last night to discuss the matter.  Duncan could not be reached for comment yesterday.

In a release from County Executive Daniel McCoy’s office, Duncan is named as his appointment for the head of the public works department.  McCoy, a Democrat, is starting his first term in office, following an uncontested election after the retirement of long-time Democratic executive Michael Breslin.

“He has a proven track record,” Kristin Devoe, who works in McCoy’s office, said yesterday of the choice.  Duncan was “vetted by the transition team,” she said, and “he really stood out.”  She said she was unsure why Walter VanDeLoo, who has been the county’s commissioner of public works for the last two years, was being replaced.

McCoy also named Michael Perrin as deputy county executive, who had served in that capacity under Breslin; Kathleen Dalton, who has worked with government health and human services agencies for 25 years, as the commissioner of social services; and Thomas Marcelle, who recently served as counsel to the redistricting committee, as county attorney.  The county legislature will vote on the appointments at its Jan. 9 meeting.

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