NORWICH – Town of Norwich Supervisor David C. Law unsuccessfully threw his town’s weight behind a move to keep the county’s attorney out of the chain of command regarding credit card processing at the airport.
The Republican and chairman of planning and economic development for Chenango County joined all but two Democrats and New Berlin’s Ross Iannello, who is politically unaffiliated, in voting for what his committee said was a roadblock to fuel sales.
“We felt he (Attorney Richard W. Breslin) would just prolong it and was going to drag his feet instead of expedite this thing along,” Law said.
Verbiage in a resolution adopted by the full board in August calls for the county attorney’s approval of said contract. According to Law’s committee, Breslin’s approval was not intended to be part of deal. The committee called for an amendment to strike the words.
City of Norwich Ward 1, 2 and 3 Supervisor James J. McNeil, a Democrat, said the credit card processing company in consideration, Global Payments Direct, Inc., submitted a standard contract.
“I think it would be two blue moons before a credit processing company and the county attorney can come to an agreement,” he told the Chenango County Board of Supervisors last week. “The fuel is sitting up there. It is convenient to be pumped, but it’s not. Gradually the money we have stockpiled for the airport will be whittled down.”
Finance Committee Chairman Lawrence Wilcox, R-Oxford, challenged the resolution to remove Breslin’s approval of the contract, questioning the committee system that enabled such a measure to get before the board in the first place.
“It would be irresponsible for us to ignore his (the county attorney’s) advice,” he said.
Breslin, speaking to the board, said the 11-page contract gave the majority of all rights to Global, and would have required that any potential litigation be conducted through the state of Georgia.
Iannello said all five of the contracts considered for the processing service were similar, and when the committee requested a meeting with Breslin to discuss Global’s, the attorney asked for a two-hour block of time to discuss it.
“We’ve been dragging this thing along for a year and a half to two years,” Iannello told the board last week. “There’s 800 gallons at $4 a gallon and nobody can pump it.”
The board previously authorized and purchased a $19,000 credit card machine and connections. Law’s committee has directed the Airport Administrator Donald W. MacIntosh to secure a processing company and dedicated telephone line that would make it possible for pilots to fuel planes independently.
Chenango County Board of Supervisor Chairman Richard B. Decker took exception to Law’s characterization of Breslin’s work ethic.
“I take exception to ‘dragging his feet.’ He is not,” Decker said.
In the 16 to 6 roll call vote, Democrats Dennis Brown of Pharsalia and Richard Schlag of German joined the Republican majority in opposing.