The record has been set and an era has ended. As 2007 finishes, the town of Savannah will say good- bye to a town supervisor who has been in that position for 48 years. No one else can say they have served their town as a supervisor for as long as that in the whole state of New York.

I do not believe that there is anyone else who is even close to matching this accomplishment that has been achieved by Donald G. Colvin. At his last town board meeting, Don shared some closing thoughts.

When he became the supervisor in 1960, he took over a town which had a debt of $36,000 and most of its road equipment was not completely paid off and in poor shape.

In comparison, at Don's final meeting the town board approved the purchase of a new heavy duty truck complete with a stainless steel box, plow, wings and hydraulics, which will be paid in full thanks to money that is part of the town's unexpended balance.

One would also discover that the equipment owned by the town is well-maintained and kept up-to-date.

During his tenure, Don has helped Savannah rebound after the flood of 1972, and in 1977, his town responsibilities expanded with the dissolving of the Village of Savannah and its debt of $1 million and the increasing pressure by the Department of Health to develop a sanitation project, which carried an insurmountable cost to the local tax payers. But through grants, loans and the help of Don and the town lawyer, each project was completed and paid off in a timely fashion, and the $1 million debt to the state was turned into a $1 million payment to the town from the state.

Each challenge was tackled with a determination to benefit the town. That was particularly true when several thousand acres of Savannah's land was being bought by the state and federal governments as the Wetland Project emerged because of its location on the fly-way zone for many migratory birds.

Don started working with the state and federal governments and all the interested parties to find a way to make even this liability of losing so many tax dollars into a future tourism attraction to help bring money back to the area.

“I am a survivor,” Don said. When I asked him if he ever imagined himself in politics as a high school student, he quickly answered no because he had a bad stuttering problem as a young boy. He credits his membership in the Masons to helping him overcome his stuttering with the many recitations that occur during their meetings.

Don could not highlight one single effort that was responsible for his many re-elections except that he worked to keep the people of Savannah happy and he enjoyed doing that.

When asked who he had met over the past 48 years which left a lasting impression on him, he shared that he had attended a $100 plate dinner and met Tom Dewey, governor of New York state and a candidate for the presidency. He also had the opportunity to meet Gerald Ford before he became president. Don also shared how he had worked with Congressman Frank Horton and how much Horton had done for upstate New York and Wayne County.

The highlight of his career was being elected as chairman of the Board of Supervisors in 1966. He served in that position for seven years. After stepping down, he served as the chairman of the finance committee from 1983 until the end of his term this December.

It was a privilege to have so many supervisors and other government officials put that kind of trust in him.

His only regret was with his quest to stop the payment of the sales tax monies to the schools.

Depending on how you figure the amount, between $2 million and $5.4 million would be added to the revenues of the county budget, greatly helping to reduce the tax burden.

Don still strongly feels that the county's inability to change this practice has greatly held back both the school systems and the county budgets from receiving the full support they could be receiving.

Monroe County has successfully stopped giving its school systems some of the tax revenues thanks to Maggie Brooks efforts. Now Wayne County is one of the very few counties that still has this practice.

Don quickly points out that Wayne County schools have the largest tax levies than any neighboring school system that is not receiving this money.

In the past 48 years, the changes Don has experienced is that state and federal government systems have become bigger and bigger. We used to travel to Albany to discuss our equalization rates and we would personally meet with the lieutenant governor and reach an agreement. The whole department was held within four to five rooms. Today, there are several buildings that hold the offices of people who work on equalization rates for New York state and there is nothing personal about your requests. You file a stack of papers and hope that your answers can best explain your town.

“When I first started campaigning for supervisor, I went door to door and 50 to 75 stops were with local farmers, today there is only a handful of farmers left in Savannah. Instead Savannah has a high number of retired persons,” he said. “But politics is still dealing with people and trying to keep people happy. But everything moves faster.”

When I asked Don if he had any advice to give to a young person going into politics, without any hesitation he said, “Never tell a lie, always tell the truth.”

After 48 years of giving his time and energy to the development and happiness of Savannah, Don is not worried about what he will be doing come January. He is sure that he will keep busy.

And again, I don't believe he needs to be concerned if someone is going to break his record of being the longest running supervisor. Savannah certainly has benefited from that level of dedication.

Carol Spellman proudly lives and writes from her home in Savannah. You can reach her at spellmanjc@tds.net