NEW SCOTLAND — Two Democrats are running unopposed on Nov. 8 to keep their full-time post.

Diane Deschenes has been town clerk for five years.

Darrell Duncan has been highway superintendent for 11 years.

TOWN CLERK

Diane Deschenes

Diane Deschenes, a Democrat, is running uncontested to start her sixth year as town clerk. This year she will take on the added responsibilities of tax collector.

Following Deschenes’s recommendation, the town board voted unanimously in April to eliminate the separate elected position of town tax collector, and combine the duties with the town-clerk position.

Deschenes said she made the recommendation because her office was already doing the off-season tax work, from April until December, taking the phone calls, and making copies. So she thought that her office could take on the additional duties all year-round, saving the town in salaries and benefits, she said this week.

In the 2005 budget the town clerk’s salary is about $43,700 and the tax collectors salary was about $15,000.

Deschenes said that, for the 2006 budget, she has requested an extra $5,000 in her salary; $4,000 more for the deputy town clerk; and a $500 increase for the deputy tax collector, who will be continuing on as a part-time employee to do data entry.

The new arrangement of tax collecting is a better service for the community, Deschenes said, making someone available five days a week, seven hours a day to answer tax-related questions.

In April, Deschenes said her office was receiving about seven calls a day related to taxes and now, in the off-season, she receives about five calls a day related to taxes.

When a bank calls recently about a closing on a house, it wants an answer that day about the town taxes for property, Deschenes said, and now, her new dual position gives her the ability to do that.

Deschenes and the deputy town-clerk are already familiar with the tax-collection computer system that is on all of her offices computers, and will be learning the preparation of tax bills from the previous deputy tax collector.

In alternate years, Deschenes attends sessions for town clerk training, so she would like to, every other year, go to tax-collecting training sessions as well. There are regularly new updates and approaches to both positions, Deschenes said. Hot topics now are putting tax rolls on the Internet, or allowing people to pay their bills with credit cards — there is a lot of information that can be learned from training, Deschenes said.

Deschenes said that with the tax collector’s office being meshed with hers, the senior services office will be moving into the old tax collector office window and tax collection will be moved then to the back room of the clerk’s office.

Now, when citizens come to pay their taxes, they can just walk into the clerk’s office.

Since Deschenes’s term began, she has secured about $70,000 worth of grants, she said. This year, with a $33,000 records-management grant, Deschenes bought a new computer program and was able to hire a part-time employee to scan all the town’s important documents, including minutes and local laws, into a fully searchable data base.
She can type in the term "Font Grove," for example, and all the documents containing that phrase will come up, she said.
"When I first started [as town clerk] everything was just thrown in the basement," Deschenes said. Since then, the town’s record management has come a long way, she said.

In that first year of her elected service, Deschenes started by just buying shelving to organize; she labeled and dated everything. And now, this year, the scanned computer files have made a huge difference, she said.

She is able to e-mail documents to board members, and get timely information to insurance companies.
She said she loves her job because of the variety. "Everything has its season," she said.

Right now, in October, she is busy with budget documents. In September there is an influx of residents coming into the office, getting their hunting licenses, and another group comes in the spring to get marriage licenses, Deschenes said.
"I enjoy dealing with the public, our neighbors and friends," she said.

HIGHWAY SUPERINTENDENT

Darrell Duncan

There are 100 town roads in New Scotland, and throughout the year at planning board and town board meetings, people regularly complain, or request that their street be moved up on the priority list to be repaired or paved.

The highway superintendent since 1994, Darrell Duncan, is running unopposed on the Democratic ticket to keep his job.

With his department’s limited budget, Duncan said, he inspects each road two to three times a year. While he is on the roads regularly, he still set asides a particular day and spends all day taking notes on the many roads conditions, if the road needs to be paved or brushed for example, he said. He counts the number of potholes to tally the damage, he said.

Roads in shady areas tend to be need repair sooner than roads with direct sunlight, since the sun dries up rain and reduces the wearing of the street, Duncan said.

He classifies the roads into four types to prioritize the repair projects:

—Traveled through roads, connector roads like Swift Road;

—Main roads such as Krum Kill;

—Housing development roads; and

—Dirt roads.

Duncan tries every year to upgrade equal amounts of each kind of road, he said. Equal sections of town are hit with the touch-ups, he said.
When it comes to complaints, "People don’t hold back," Duncan said, but he finds the people who complain also turn out to be the hardest workers and the first to help out.

The complaint phone calls can be useful, Duncan said. At times, he is frustrated because the complaint is about a road that he is trying to get to, but, other times, callers point out a problem that he might not know about so it can be addressed right away, he said.

Besides the roads, the superintendent oversees parks, the transfer station, refuse and recycling, animal control, and some water and sewer issues.

Duncan’s salary for 2005 is about $61,500, the highest-paid town position.

Duncan said, even with seasonal help, he has fewer than 20 employees to oversee at one time.
Does he like being a boss" "Yes and no," said Duncan. Sometimes the biggest headache of his job is managing people, but it always seems to work out — balance itself out, he said.

Duncan’s recommendations to the town board helped to revamp the animal-control program this summer.

The village of Voorheesville had split from the town program this year. Then this summer, two of the town’s animal-control officers quit because of the awkward on-call hours, and because they didn’t feel like they were being paid enough.
"The program is a work in progress," Duncan said; he added that sometimes he has felt like the animal-control program is just stumbling through.

In September, the town board announced that one new animal-control officer was hired. The town now has two part-time officers.

New Scotland can’t afford to hire a full-time officer, Duncan said, so, with two part time officers who are devoted to the program, it’s working out well so far.

Overall, Duncan likes working for the town. He enjoys New Scotland and is glad that his children can grow up here as he did.

He likes working for the people of the community and he said being the highway superintendent has been a good way to support his family.