Diane Valden reports in The Columbia Paper that the Copake town board fired, rehired, and then accepted the resignation of Sole Assessor J. Craig Surprise in the past month, with no public explanation. After an executive session on Dec. 14, everyone on the town board except Councilperson Jeanne Mettler voted to let Surprise go. Then, on December 28, the board went into executive session again, and everyone except Supervisor Jeff Nayer voted to rescind the firing. Then, on Jan. 11 the board accepted Surprise’s resignation and appointed Lynn Hotaling of Ghent as the new sole assessor through September 30, 2019. Surprise was appointed to assist Hotaling through February 28, 2018. No board members would give any comments on the matter to Valden. Also Dec. 28, the Copake board authorized the town’s attorney to settle “Jonathan C. Urban v. Assessor of the Town of Copake,” reducing the original assessment on one parcel from $730,000 to $600,000 and on a second parcel from $1,285,100 to $1,050,100. Read the full story in The Columbia Paper.