County Board To See At Least Three New Faces In January
Published: July 26th, 2011
By: Melissa deCordova

County board to see at least three new faces in January

NORWICH – Though Democrats and some Republicans have yet to caucus in several towns, at least three new faces will make up the Chenango County Board of Supervisors in 2012.

In addition to Richard B. Decker of North Norwich’s news last week and Afton’s Robert Briggs previously reported decision to retire, the supervisor from the Town of Smithville will also step away from public office.

Allan I. Johnson has supervised this small, rural town (pop. 1,330) located in south central Chenango County for the past six years. Now is the right time to retire, he said, so as to free up time for travel and to allow someone else to take over.

“Jobs like this ought to be rotated among the people. I’m in favor of self-imposed term limits; in my mind, you do the job for a while and then you let someone else do it.”

During his tenure, the town council began updating its comprehensive plan (a task Johnson hopes is complete before he leaves office at year’s end) and made improvements to the town hall, its grounds and the community park. An 11-acre parcel of land between the town hall and fire station was purchased for future municipal use.

“We’ve just tried to keep a little progress going and keep the peace,” said Johnson. “The only real challenges on the town level have been dogs and roads. We’re just trying to keep people served well and satisfied. You know you’ll never satisfy everybody, but you try.”

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