East Aurora Advertiser

Board Meetings Restart in Town of Wales



The Wales Town Board met near the end of May for the first time in over two months. The meeting took place at the South Wales Community Center on Olean Road, rather than the usual location at the town hall on Big Tree Road, because the town hall was occupied by the assessment review board.

Wales resident David Newman was appointed as clerk for the Zoning Board of Appeals and the Conservation Advisory Board.

“We interviewed Dave Newman and we think he will be an excellent fit. We are happy to appoint him,” Board Member Kyle Barry said. “He tries to research as much as possible and always puts thought into what he says.”

Supervisor Rickey Venditti said that the town board only received one application for the position, even though he had heard that others were interested.

“We need to have people come forward when they are interested,” Venditti said.

Wales resident Dori Carlone said she sent an email of interest, but she wasn’t interviewed and she wasn’t sent an application and she feels like she was qualified because of her past experience of being a clerk for Family Court.

Town Clerk Mindy Eaton said she received many emails about the position from residents, including Carlone’s, and she told them all to send a letter. Venditti said that he saw the email about Carlone when Eaton requested a letter.

In other business, the board amended the special use permit for Notting Hill Farm, which is a venue for events on Warner Hill Road. The original permit allows events to take place from April 1 to Oct. 31 every year, but the business asked for it to be amended to Nov. 30 for only this year.

“Due to the COVID crisis, the operators have had to close their facility and a lot of their events have had to be postponed,” Venditti said. “They are in the process of rescheduling these events and are hopeful that later this year they can hold them. They are hoping to extend the permit for this year only.”

The changes were approved.

The board also approved a bid for portable toilets to be placed during the summer months at the town park, but they will not be placed there until the pandemic is over to ensure safety.

“Most other towns are limiting town park use and the ones with built-in bathrooms are keeping them closed because it will be difficult to keep up with the cleaning requirements,” Venditti said. 

“[County Executive Mark] Poloncarz was saying during his weekly meeting that if bathrooms are open, we are only required to clean them once a day, but we cannot measure how often they are being used so we are choosing to not make them available.”

The board will meet again on July 14 at 7 p.m. at the town hall located at 12345 Big Tree Road.

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