Cooperstown News Bureau

COOPERSTOWN - The Otsego County Board of Representatives approved a "home rule request" Wednesday night, asking the state Legislature to boost the sales tax rate to 8 percent in the county, beginning Dec. 1.

Previously, the county board had voted to increase the sales tax, but it was informed by state Sen. James Seward, R-Milford, that a home rule request needed to be passed for the state to act.

The resolution was approved by a vote of 10 to 3, with Reps. Richard Thompson, D-Milford, Donald Lindberg, R-Worcester, and Eugene Wells, R-Springfield, voting no. Rep. Cathy Rothenberger, D-Oneonta, was absent.

If the state Legislature approves the request, the higher sales tax would remain in effect until Nov. 30, 2005.

In other business, the board:

• Listened to a letter addressed to Wells, chairman of the county's Health, Education and Agriculture Committee, informing the board that Kathryn Abernethy, the county's director of public health, has resigned, effective June 16.

Abernethy, who was appointed to her current position at the end of 1995, had been earning about $60,000 a year. She has accepted a similar job in St. Lawrence, she said Wednesday.

"It was a very difficult decision," Abernethy said Wednesday.

• Defeated, by a vote of 7 to 6, a resolution that would have authorized Abernethy to hire an account clerk typist for the public health nursing service.

Wells said he believed the position should be filled, but Rep. Roberta Puritz, D-Oneonta, said she had not received enough information about the need for position to justify voting for it.

Voting against this resolution were Reps. Gregory Relic, R-Unadilla; Ronald Feldstein, D-Oneonta; Michael Swiderski, R-Oneonta, Lindberg, Thompson, and Puritz.

• Listened to Schenevus contractor Bill Althiser, who told board members at the start of the meeting that the county codes office is making it difficult for experienced excavators to perform soil percolation tests.

Althiser said contractors are under the impression that only personnel from the county Soil and Water District can perform these tests.

Althiser also said he was disillusioned with the board of representatives. "You're all bureaucrats and that's all you'll ever be," he said, adding that he believed it is unfair that representatives have free health insurance.