Southold Town has hired a replacement for Phillip Beltz, the longtime special projects coordinator who retired in October.
The board Tuesday night voted 4-0, with Councilwoman Jill Doherty absent, to appoint Richard D. (Denis) Noncarrow to the newly created position of government liaison officer.
Noncarrow will work out of the supervisor’s office.
The town revised the duty statement for Beltz’s position, Supervisor Scott Russell said after the meeting. As a result, the new post will not be responsible for some of things Beltz handled, the supervisor said — among them: youth bureau, workplace violence and risk management compliance.
“The new position will still oversee affordable housing, economic development, community development block grant funding, et cetera,” Russell said. “It focuses more heavily on community outreach, interactions with community groups and other agencies, public education and relations,” he said. “Phillip did a lot of those but he was clearly working out of title. The duty statement of his specific position focused more on analysis of public policy and financial policy,” he explained.
Noncarrow, who is president of the board of Community Action Southold Town, has held several leadership positions on the Southold Town Republican Committee and served as its chairman for four years. He stepped down from that post in November 2012. Prior to accepting the new position, Noncarrow was employed by Suffolk County.
“The new position is exempt, non-competitive — which means he gets appointed each year and the position requires no Civil Service test,” Russell said. “It also means that any future board can remove him if they believe they have a better candidate,” he added.
The post carries a salary of $74,191. Noncarrow starts work on Monday, Feb. 29.
New deputy highway superintendent named
Highway Superintendent Vincent Orlando has appointed a new deputy to replace 31-year highway department veteran Curt Davids who is retiring as of tomorrow.
Orlando named Roger Tabor of Orient, who has worked for the highway department for 18 years. The town board Tuesday set the salary for the position at $85,000 per year.
“I’m sad to see Curt go,” Orlando said today. “You hate to lose 30 years of knowledge. You can’t duplicate history like that, but I couldn’t convince him to stay,” he said. “Roger, with almost 20 years on the job, also brings a lot of historic knowledge with him to the post,” Orlando said. Tabor assumes the new position Monday.
Cablevision franchise agreement approved
The town board Tuesday evening held a public hearing on the proposed renewal of the town’s franchise agreement with Cablevision.
Cablevision’s director of government affairs Joan Gilroy summarized the terms of the agreement, which the town has been negotiating with the company since 2013, she said.
The renewal will be for a period of 10 years. The agreement requires Cablevision to grant seniors a 15-percent discount on basic service, pay the town $100,000 to upgrade its camera and cable equipment. The company will also pay franchise fees of 5 percent of its gross receipts in the town, which will bring Southold an estimated $638,000 per year in revenue, Gilroy said.
Cablevision will provide free cable service at all schools, fire departments and municipal buildings and will connect Town Hall Annex and Town Hall with fiber optic cable at Cablevision’s expense.
One resident spoke at the hearing. Robert Dunn of Peconic complained about Cablevision’s customer service performance.
The town board voted 4-0 (with Councilwoman Jill Doherty absent) to approve the franchise agreement renewal after the hearing was concluded.
In other action of note Tuesday, the town board:
- appointed John Grilli to the position of crew leader in the highway department
- approved the route for the 12th Annual St. Patrick’s Day Parade in Cutchogue, sponsored by the North Fork Chamber of Commerce and Cutchogue Fire Department, to be held on Saturday, March 12, beginning at 1 p.m. The parade steps off on Cox Lane and continues west to Cases Lane, ending on the Village Green.
- granted permission to the Semper Fi Fund to hold a 5K run on May 29 from 8:30 to 10:30 a.m.
- granted permission to Live On NY to use certain roads in the town for its North Shore Bike Tour on Sunday, May 22 from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. The bike tour will begin at Osprey’s Dominion winery in Peconic, head east on Route 25 to Moore’s Lane, where it will go north to the North Road and then east to Orient Point State Park, and then return to the winery by the same route.
Editor’s note: This article was amended post-publication to reflect the Richard D. Noncarrow’s commonly used name, Denis, and his past positions with the Southold Republican committee.
