Published: November 20, 2007 12:56 am      

CAMBRIA: Town seeks an assessor

CAMBRIA — The town board will interview candidates for assessor in early December.

In a Monday work session, the board agreed to call in five of six local applicants who responded to a recent advertisement.

The sixth applicant, Dominic Penale Jr., will not be called in for an interview, board members decided.

Penale already is the assessor for the City of Niagara Falls and the Town of Wilson, and council members said they’re not interested in having Cambria join that particular shared-service compact.

It’s partly a worry about being the third party in a sharing deal, but more about the City of Niagara Falls and fears of being compared against it.

The Falls is a city in decline, while rural Cambria is continually growing, board member Debra Kroening said.

“We are open to shared services, but we don’t want a partner that’s so dissimilar,” board member Matthew Foe said.

“It’s better to have a neighboring (municipality) as a partner,” board member George J. Bush added.

The town needs a new assessor after the board earlier this year declined to give Barbara J. Oaks a new, six-year appointment. Members talked vaguely Monday about a sense of public unhappiness with the assessing process but declined to point to anything specific.

“(We) felt it was time to go in a different direction,” Supervisor Wright Ellis said.

Ellis and Pendleton supervisor James Riester have an “ongoing” conversation about someday sharing an assessor.

In Pendleton, Assessor Karen Manning was not reappointed last month and is on holdover status while the board looks at sharing arrangements with others in the Starpoint School District including Wheatfield and Cambria, Riester said. Pendleton is not shopping for an assessor at this point, he added.

“We’re looking more to merge (with other municipalities) than just change assessors,” Riester said. “If it worked out, I think Cambria would be a great fit for us.”

Cambria’s posting of an open assessor spot drew eight applications altogether, including two from downstate candidates. Ellis said he’ll call both of them to see whether they’re still interested, given that the work is considered part-time and pays a salary of $32,000 per year.

In other business, the board is looking for interested residents to serve on several civic boards in 2008:

• Zoning Board of Appeals — With Joe Ohol’s election to the town board, he’ll have to give up his seat on, and longtime chairmanship of, the zoning board. If alternate member Norman Allen is promoted to full membership, a new alternate will be needed. For promotion to the chairmanship, town board member Robert Blackman suggested consideration of current ZBA member Theresa Kroening. “She seems to be her own person in the meetings, which I sometimes admire,” he said.

• Planning Board — Member Norm Human is resigning. If one of two alternate members is appointed to full membership, a new alternate may be sought, Ellis said.

• Recreation committee — Chairman Howard Morgan is resigning, and member Joy Jordan’s term is expiring. According to Ellis, it’s not known whether Jordan wishes to be reappointed.

• The Board of Assessment Review and Board of Ethics also need one new member apiece.

Anyone who wants to be considered for a board appointment can send a letter of interest to Supervisor Wright Ellis at Cambria Town Hall, 4160 Upper Mountain Road, Sanborn, NY 14132.

Contact reporter Joyce Miles at 439-9222, ext. 6245.