New administration

Maher promises to be ‘open, honest, transparent’

By Connor Linskey
Posted 1/8/20

The Town of Montgomery’s Town Board members were sworn in at a packed ceremony on New Year’s Eve.

Veteran Town Justice Frederick Gorss was the first to be sworn in. He has been the …

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New administration

Maher promises to be ‘open, honest, transparent’

Posted

The Town of Montgomery’s Town Board members were sworn in at a packed ceremony on New Year’s Eve.

Veteran Town Justice Frederick Gorss was the first to be sworn in. He has been the Town of Montgomery justice since January of 1996. He has more than 40 years experience as a practicing attorney. Gorss has felony and misdemeanor trial experience and experience in all types of cases, including landlord and tenant cases, civil and criminal cases, vehicle and traffic and more. He won the town justice position convincingly at the November election. Gorss received 2,971 votes, far outpacing Lynda Mitchell’s 1,631 votes. He, along with the rest of the town board members, was sworn in by Town Clerk Tara Stickles.

Superintendent of Highways Shaun Meres was sworn in after running for the position uncontested. This will be his fourteenth year working for the town’s highway department.

“I will work hard every day for you and fix the roads to the best of my ability,” he said.
Newly sworn in Councilwoman Kristen Brown brings leadership experience to the table. She is the chair of the New York Farm Bureau’s Young Farmers and Ranchers Program. Brown did well at the November election, earning the second most votes for town councilman, which earned her the seat.

“I’m a simple farmer that just wants to do good by people,” she said. “I look forward to serving everybody.”

Much like Brown, newly sworn in Councilman Ronald Feller has extensive leadership experience. He was a town councilman in Montgomery for four years. Now that he is retired, he feels that he can dedicate more time to the job. Feller led a successful campaign for the councilman position, earning the most votes of any candidate at the November election.

“I will do the best I can for this town,” he said. “I love this town, been here 45 years.”
Brian Maher was sworn in as supervisor of the Town of Montgomery following a competitive election in November. Maher defeated Maybrook Mayor Dennis Leahy and incumbent supervisor Rodney Winchell to capture the position. He has town government experience, serving as mayor of Walden from 2009 to 2015.

“Our town government is going to be open, honest, transparent and everything else I think will come together after that,” he said. “I wake up every morning and I think about how I can better our community.”

There were also several guests who were invited to speak. This included Orange County Executive Steve Neuhaus, Senator James Skoufis and Orange County Legislator, 17th District, Mike Anagnostakis. Neuhaus commended the Town of Montgomery for its patriotism. In addition, he spoke highly of the new supervisor.

“There’s a lot of brand new supervisors across the Hudson Valley getting sworn in the next few days. Not every one of them has done a transition team, not every one of them has reached out to Democrats and Republicans,” he said. “When you look at all the chaos in Washington and the fighting between the two parties, this is the role model on how to get things done.”