Highway chief’s good deeds reined in

The town’s first-year highway superintendent was worried another vehicle might hit the depression and possibly injure a child or teacher. So without being asked, he took it upon himself to grab a few highway workers and $20 worth of asphalt to patch a few of the bothersome holes during a lunch break.

“You can tell me that’s wrong,” he said Tuesday. “But is it wrong when little kids and teachers are trying to get to school?”

The deed is among a number Perog has directed since taking over the office that don’t fall under his purview. On occasions, he’s ordered town crews to sand the volunteer fire company parking lots and he used donated supplies to help build a foot bridge connecting a nature trail to the privately owned Duanesburg Area Community Center.

But while Perog’s actions might have been altruistically motivated, the Town Board hasn’t viewed them favorably. Last month, Supervisor Rene Merrihew issued a letter to Perog asking him to refrain from providing Highway Department services to private entities and entering into contracts with other public entities.

“Basically, we did what we could to protect the town,” she said. “The liability issue is the biggest issue. Nobody is questioning his benevolence or generosity for doing the work.”

Others suggested Perog’s activities are greater pattern of him operating the department outside of established rules. Bob Wall, the town’s former supervisor, said the highway superintendent’s actions may be “the tip of the iceberg” and called for him to resign.

“OK these are good deeds,” he said. “But it’s not the town’s responsibility to do them,”

Perog paints a dramatically different picture. He doesn’t consider his actions any different from previous highway superintendents and suspects the board’s issues are politically motivated.

“I’m doing my job,” he said. “If they want to have fun being political, that’s fine. But I’ve got a job to do.”

And he has the support of some town residents. Cindy Brasmeister, a member of the Duanesburg Volunteer Ambulance Company and Quaker Street Fire Department, lauded Perog for helping out when both needed their parking lots sanded in the middle of a winter storm.

“He’s doing things to help his community,” she said. “But he’s always made sure to take care of the [town’s] roads first.”

Perog is the latest highway superintendent to be at odds with the board. Francis Spor came under fire last year after several residents complained about a lack of maintenance on Duanesburg’s 46 miles of roads.

Spor, a Republican serving in his first year of a three-year term, argued his department’s three-member staff and highway budget was inadequate to correct a department that had been grossly neglected for years. The board discussed abolishing the department altogether when Spor abruptly quit in August, less than two weeks after a series of powerful thunderstorms caused significant damage to many of the town’s roads.

Perog, a former Republican who the party overlooked for Spor in 2007, beat GOP board member Martin White in an election that was decided by 13 votes. He suspects his win still has some people in the party upset.

But Merrihew said politics has nothing to do with it. She worries one of Perog’s good deeds could go wrong and ultimately land the town in a costly lawsuit.