NEW SCOTLAND – Ronald Von Ronne has spent the last 20 years serving his town on the zoning board of appeals, but now, he said, it’s time "to pass the football on to the new guys."

William Hennessey, a consulting engineer who has served on the board for four years, will succeed Von Ronne, who has been the chairman of the board since the mid-1990s.

Hennessey was appointed in a unanimous decision by the town board at last Wednesday’s meeting. Todd Britton, an alternate for the zoning board, will become a regular board member.
"I’m sure that the board will do very well with Bill’s leadership," Von Ronne said of his successor.

Von Ronne worked for 27 years for Main Care Energy in Albany, he said. He started with the company washing trucks, and, when he retired in 2000, he was president, he said.
The greatest satisfaction of being on the zoning board, Von Ronne said, "is serving the residents of the town."
"We don’t set policy. We don’t make laws," Von Ronne said of the zoning board’s function. "We are an appeals board," he said.
It is the responsibility of the zoning board to "interpret the law and try to satisfy the town’s requirements and the applicant’s request," Von Ronne said.

Working with the town and its residents, said Hennessey, is what he likes most about serving on the zoning board.
"Everyone on the board would have been able to do the job," Hennessey said of his new position. "I’m excited about the opportunity to help the town."
The zoning board does its best to "negotiate" each application "to the advantage of both parties," Von Ronne said.
New Scotland is not the "mature town" it once was, Von Ronne said. "There’s a lot of new people, young people in town " They should have a chance to run the board," he said.
The town will benefit from "fresh ideas and fresh leadership," he said.
"I have the utmost respect for all the previous and current members of the board," Von Ronne said.
He worked often with the building department, he said, and the staff there were "always immensely helpful."
Hennessey said that Von Ronne "brought a tremendous amount of experience to the board and he will be missed."

"Well occupied"

When asked what he thought Von Ronne would do with his free time, Supervisor Ed Clark told The Enterprise, "I think he’s well occupied."

Von Ronne and his wife, Judith, run a small ski camp for children with chronic illnesses at Paul Newman’s Double H Ranch at Lake Luzerne.

This year, the Von Ronnes are working with about 100 instructors and 150 students, he told The Enterprise. The program is free for the children and their families, he said.
"It’s a wonderful thing he’s doing there," said Hennessey of Von Ronne’s ski instruction.
The mountain is not open to the public, but, "solely open to the children and their families," Von Ronne said. It has its own snow-maker and "everything the big mountains have, just on a smaller scale," he said.

The Von Ronnes have four children: Mikko, Shannon, Anthony, and Krista.
Anthony Von Ronne owns a paint-ball emporium in Delmar. Though he has not played before, Von Ronne said that, now, "Maybe I will."

He also hopes he might enjoy some traveling with his wife.
Von Ronne’s ancestors are from Italy, and, after his daughter was married there a few years ago, he "fell in love with it" and plans to return, he said.
He was "amazed" by the similarities between Italy and the United States, he said, and "impressed" by the differences.
When asked how many meetings he had called to order in his time with the zoning board, Von Ronne laughed, and said, "It’s quite a few, I bet."
"Everybody has to move on eventually," he said. "I think, in this case, it’s good for the town."

Candidate selection
"I don’t think there was any doubt that we would pick someone on the board to serve as chairman," Clark told The Enterprise this week.

Before the Jan. 10 town board meeting, Clark said he called the board’s most senior members – Hennessey and Adam Greenberg – and asked them if they would serve as chairman if selected, and they both said yes. Hennessey was chosen by the board.

In 2007, the zoning board of appeals is budgeted $10,757 for salaries for its five members and one alternate.

The town will advertise that the alternate position is available, and interested candidates can submit resumes, Clark said.
‘It’s not necessary to have an exact time frame," Clark said of the task of finding an alternate to replace Britton. "We will have a full board, even without an alternate."

He said that, generally, when the town is reviewing candidates to fill a board position, the town board likes to meet with the candidates, and discuss their views.

Individual town board members like to meet with candidates to see how their views might compare with those of the applicant, Clark said.
Town board members, responsible for selecting planning and zoning board members, "try to get an impression of how the person represents the population in the community," Clark said.

Hennessey has lived in New Scotland for 11 years with his wife and their four children: Casey, Michael, Conner, and Mary.

He graduated, with his engineering degree, in 1984 from Manhattan College. He has been working on his own since 1993, he said, and currently works out of his home.

His children are involved in various sports, he said, citing the Pop Warner football league and Pine Bush Little League as examples. He has been coaching St. Matthew’s Catholic Youth Organization basketball for four years.

Hennessey has filled in for Von Ronne as chairman on multiple occasions when Von Ronne was out of town, he said.

Hennessey said that applications for individual residential construction involving additions are frequently heard before the zoning board.
"An appropriate variance is negotiated or approved," he said. "We try to work out matters in a favorable, as opposed to an adversarial, way."
Working out ways that residents who have a problem can find "an alternate method" is a lot of what the zoning board does, Von Ronne said.

Von Ronne told The Enterprise that Hennessey’s engineering experience and knowledge proved helpful both to him and to the rest of the board.
Von Ronne was "very astute at maintaining his objective stance on matters," Hennessey said. "We’ll remain good friends."
Hennessey said that he feels confident with the abilities of the board members. "We work well together," he said.