WAWARSING – Petitioners present at the June 16 Wawarsing town board meeting requested that the supervisor and councilmen investigate rumors that operations of Project Cat, a non-for-profit animal welfare organization based in Accord, were not on the up and up. Representatives for local trap, neuter, release organizations made comments suggesting that Project Cat director Gail Minocko was unethically euthanizing feral — and possibly personal — cats despite other agencies' work to decrease feral cat colonies in the area.

Supervisor Leonard Distel explained that all questions will be directed to Minocko, who he said would be discussing their concerns with him at a later date. Councilman Stephen Bradley added that the hamlet of Napanoch has a significant feral cat population and residents have reached out to him to find an equitable solution.

In regular business, the town board unanimously adopted a local law to establish a parks and recreation commission to be consolidated with the village.

By advancing what has been a committee to commission status, town attorney Bill Collier said, grantwriting opportunities would be opened up, in addition to demonstrating how the two municipalities could work together. Councilman Dan Johnson explained that the committee was formed last year after Ulster County Executive Mike Hein okayed the disbursement of $150,000 of the Ellenville Million to further progress on the town's and village's parks and trails.

The commission, which will include Ulster County Director of Tourism Rick Remsnyder, will work to encourage maximum use of recreational facilities and programs as well as to seek funding sources for the continuation and start-up of programs. The village will be holding a public hearing on its own part of the deal during their June 27 meeting.

A second public hearing, regarding the allowance of retail antique shops in the town's RU zoning district, was continued to the board's next meeting on July 7. According to Collier, the town board received county comments regarding the amendment, but nothing from the town's planning board. If approved, the local law would allow retail antique shops, by special use permit, along Route 209.

Former town clerk Jane Eck chastised the councilmen and supervisor for their conduct during the last meeting when six separate motions were made without being mentioned in the meeting's published agenda. She added that only emergency motions can be made without advance notice.

While in agreement, with apologies to current town clerk Roxanne Shamro, Johnson asked for a motion to consider employing an outside source for payroll services after noting that he'd asked for the motion to appear on the evenings' agenda. He said he wanted the shift because there have been times when the town's payroll department had been unable to generate W2 forms in a timely matter at year's end, but did not get a second on his motion after Eck again stood up and said that the motion was not an emergency and Distel asked him to drop the matter.

"If it's not broke, don't fix it," Distel said, adding that hiring an outside company in addition to keeping current staff would mean paying twice for the same services. Councilman Terry Houck added that there were alternatives, possibly involving the purchase of a software program.

Ulster County legislator TJ Briggs updated the board on a variety of county issues including the adoption of a new community college budget with no tuition increase, and the funded addition of an additional family court judge. He added that a decision to move same family court to a new location would likely be going up for a referendum vote on the November ballot.