MONTEZUMA -- The Montezuma Planning Board can go back to work.

Under the advisement of Town Attorney Norman Chirco, the Montezuma Town Board told the planning board Tuesday they are permitted to continue meeting until they are either reappointed or officially dismissed.

"My suggestion is to let the planning board continue on with its work, let it continue what it's doing," Chirco said. "There are obviously important issues that need to be talked about, and since this town board has not abolished, dismissed, let anyone go, terminated anyone at all, there is no reason why they can't meet.

"They need to meet and now this town board needs to decide how to put this in order," he continued. "I don't think this town board did anything wrong,"

Chirco said that, while the words "abolish" and "dismiss" were used and recorded in the official minutes of the Feb. 19 meeting, the town board never disbanded the planning board during the Jan. 15 meeting. Using the minutes from the January meeting, he said the town board decided to not reappoint planning board members and asked people interested in serving on the planning board to submit letters of intent or resumes.

Joe Verdi, chairman of the planning board denied this position, maintaining that the town board officially dissolved the governmental body two months ago.

For more, read Wednesday's Citizen