Supervisor pulls double duty after pipes break
The town's new leader spent his second night on the job using a shop vac to suck up water in the Town Hall.
HURLEY, N.Y. » The town’s new supervisor got his feet wet pretty quickly.
John Perry spent his second night on the job using a shop vac to suck up water from burst pipes in the Town Hall on Wamsley Place.
The emergency occurred during the Town Board’s annual reorganization meeting Tuesday evening, leaving about an inch of cold water on the floor in the town clerk’s office and a furnace room.
“This is a test,” Perry said. “It’s all uphill from here.”
Perry, who was sworn in Monday, had just concluded the Tuesday meeting and was talking with a reporter about priorities for the coming year when he was called to the clerk’s office.
He later kept a sense of humor about the unanticipated duty when asked whether he wanted to reconsider taking over as supervisor.
“It’s too late now,” he said while carrying a full bucket from the shop vac outdoors to dump the water.
Councilman John Dittus described the incident as a “baptism by flood” and said Perry’s predecessor, Supervisor Gary Bellows, would have responded in the same way.
“John’s a good man,” Dittus said of Perry. “Gary had a lot of experience with floods. Have you seen where he lives [along the Lower Esopus Creek]? He has been up on his roof with floods.”
The water problem came on top of the Town Hall having no heat for several days because fuel oil had gelled due to the cold weather.
Perry, a Republican, defeated Democrat Tracy Kellogg by just 13 votes, 1,1691,156, in the November election to win the Hurley supervisor’s job.
Bellows, also a Republican, who chose not to seek re-election after serving 12 nonconsecutive terms as the town’s leader.
Fixing the Town Hall problems aside, Perry said his priorities for the coming year are improving internet service in the town, increasing the town’s use of solar power and working with Ulster County to develop rail trails in Hurley.
He also wants to hold town meetings in West Hurley to encourage people from that part of the town to get involved.