Born in Sennett in 1920, Doug Riley has served his community for more than 50 years. His birthplace was his father's dairy farm on Miller Road. Later his father purchased the old Webster farm on Depot Road, which Doug and his brother Norm, operated for many years.

Doug's father bought a milk route, which Doug started working on as soon as he could get a drivers license. He milked cows from seven different farms for the Dairymen's League on Clark Street, and then drove the truck to school.

Doug remembers one winter when the electricity was off at the farm for an entire week, and he hooked up the vacuum system from the milking machine to the manifold of a truck. Without this bit of ingenuity the milking would have had to be laboriously done by hand.

Norm and Doug bought the family farm in 1964, and until they sold it in 1979, Doug milked 75 cows daily, and then went out to help his brother who did most of the field work.

His first connection with work in the town of Sennett was with 15 other men who formed the Sennett Volunteer Fire Department in 1946. He is the only living charter member.

He enjoyed telling me a funny story about a fire call that took place shortly after the department had begun operating. In the days before two-way radios, a call committee was used to notify the members in the event of a fire. The chief and the assistant chief would call two firefighters, and they would then call two others, until everyone was notified. When a fire broke out on Franklin Street, everyone showed up, but no one brought the fire truck.

In 1955, Doug left the fire department to run for the town council. Since the department was under the direction of the town board, and did not have its own commissioners, as they do today, he felt that “It would not be good policy to serve in both bodies at the same time.”

According to Doug, “My first job was on the highway committee, working with then superintendent Bert Baker, who was to purchase a new snow plow. It was a 1956 Walters Snow Fighter. The old ‘Garford' would break an axle every time it hit a pile of high snow. To raise or lower the wing, you had to get out and do it by hand with a winch.”

Shortly after Doug became a member of the town board, Baker passed away and Warren Higgs took over as highway superintendent. “I went out to help him during snow storms, as he needed an extra man to help drive or operate the hydraulic lift on the plow.”

The town board had originally met at a building in the village, which was once a tavern, a creamery, meeting room, and later housed the town equipment. It was a wooden building, and could not be insured. At that point, Doug, being chairman of the highway committee, led a group in seeking a new location for the highway garage. He said that, “We were able to get the property where the present highway garage stands from the state of New York at a reasonable price.” He worked with architects and contractors to build the new garage, which at that time housed the town equipment, and had offices for the town clerk and highway superintendent, and a meeting room.

Doug served on the town council for 25 years, and on the county planning board for four years. In 1996, he was elected to town assessor.

His grandfather, F.J. Riley served in this capacity in the 1920s and his father Charles Riley held the position in the early '70s. After his election, Doug was appointed head assessor by the town board.

He noted that records are now on computer discs, and with the help of aerial photos, property measurements can be taken right off the computer. “It's a lot different from when Grandpa did it.”

Doug graciously remembers those with whom he has been associated with over the years, emphasizing that he “has enjoyed working with good people in town government.”

Tom DeFurio is former supervisor for the town of Sennett