RENSSELAERVILLE —  Maryanne Overbaugh, who had been recommended by the planning board to fill a vacancy earlier this year but who had been rejected by the town board in favor of its own choice, was appointed to fill a more recent vacancy at the town board’s meeting on Thursday, Aug. 11.

Overbaugh had once again been recommended by the planning board after it had again interviewed her as well as Tom Kropp who also responded to an advertisement to fill the post vacated by Barry Kuhar. She was appointed unanimously by the full town board. The planning board also recommended the creation of an alternate-member position and proposed  Kropp fill it.

Town board member Marion Cook and Gerald Wood took part in the planning board’s interviews of the two candidates for the vacancy. The position is volunteer and unpaid.

Overbaugh is the wife Mark Overbaugh, the town’s building inspector and code enforcement officer.

Marie Dermody, a former town supervisor and publisher of the R’Ville Community Newsletter, pronounced herself surprised and pleased by the decision.

“I would have bet my bottom dollar they would not have done this,” she said after the meeting.

Dermody has been highly critical of the board for its failure to accept the planning board’s recommendation of Overbaugh for the earlier vacancy, and has suggested political reasons may have been involved.

“You have restored my faith in the town board,” she told the board before the meeting ended.

Supervisor Valerie Lounsbury says she had supported the appointment of Overbaugh to the earlier vacancy.

“The planning board does a very good job for us and they make good decisions. They know what they need,” she told The Enterprise after the meeting.

She said that board members who previously opposed Overbaugh must have changed their minds.

At the  May 12 town board meeting, Cook and Lounsbury voted for Overbaugh’s appointment but Councilman Robert Bolte voted against it. Three votes are needed for the five-member board to take action.

At a later special town board meeting, a motion by Lounsbury to appoint Overbaugh failed  to be seconded. Councilman Bolte then moved to appoint Laura Bates — the wife of Randall Bates, the town’s highway superintendent. All members but Lounsbury voted for her appointment.

Despite the unanimity this time, there was some heat during the meeting, generated by a prepared statement Dermody made to the board at the start of the meeting, prior to the vote appointing Overbaugh. She stated, “...if the town board does not approve the planning board’s recommendations, I strongly urge every ...member to resign their position due to your apparent lack of respect for them.”

Gerald Wood said of this advice, “I don’t like to be threatened as a town board member.”

Dermody said it was not a threat but “a course of action.”  But she also said ,“I am sorry I ever made this statement,” referring presumably to the entire statement she had read at the outset of the meeting.  “I want to thank you [the town board] for stepping up to the plate.”

“If that’s backstepping on my part,” she said, “so be it.”

Whether Overbaugh ought to have been disqualified as the wife of a town official seemed no longer an issue, if it had ever been one. Dermody pointed out in her statement that several relatives of town officials currently volunteer on town boards.

The town board also took up the question of whether an alternate member should be appointed to the planning board and to the zoning board.

Thomas Fallaci, the town attorney, advised the board that such action ought to be postponed until a  new town  law is enacted —or perhaps two new laws — to make the action conform with applicable New York state law. He will draft the necessary statute(s).

Lounsbury told The Enterprise she thinks the addition of an alternate member is a good idea.

“Not all board members can attend all meetings,” she said. “ It would be good to have an alternate who could step in when needed, and also to have someone who is up to speed if a member resigns.”

Other business

In other business, the board:

— Unanimously approved Lounsbury’s suggestion  that request for proposals be issued to accounting firms, with the objective of replacing the current firm with one that is more local and less costly; and

—  Unanimously accepted Lounsbury’s recommendation that the town renew its $25,000 per annum contract with Tyler Technologies for its software, data management, and website needs. She acknowledged that the cost is “outrageously expensive” but that the firm provides a complete range of services, including timely updates and payroll tracking.