The Town of Forestport has filed a theft report with the Oneida County Sheriff’s Department regarding a non-specific quantity of “old water system parts,” as they were described in a statement to sheriffs.
The statement was made by Ted Daktor, a maintenance worker for the Town of Forestport.
Daktor said he was familiar with the items and discovered them missing.
Originally the parts had been in stored at the Highway Depart-ment property for nearly 25 years, before being moved to the property of Supervisor Parker Snead, according to Snead.
There were “large main line fittings, including Ys and Ts, et cetera,” according to Ted Daktor’s statement.
Apparently a Highway Department worker was instructed by Highway Superintendent Bill Gardner to dump the materials on the grounds at Town Hall.
When the truck arrived to unload, Daktor intercepted it telling the driver that the construction waste could not be dumped.
Superintendent Gardner had not requested or received authorization to relocate the material—which consisted of old pipes and fittings—at Town Hall, according to Supervisor Snead.
The driver told Daktor that he needed to empty the truck somewhere, as it was needed for other work.
Daktor then called Supervisor Snead for guidance in the matter.
As a temporary measure, Snead suggested that the
driver unload the material at Snead’s property, rather then Town property where it didn’t belong.
A couple weeks later—about the middle of September—Daktor found the items to be missing.
Supervisor Snead said he immediately called the sheriff to report the presumed theft.
The value of the water system parts is undeterminable, but they were probably worth a small amount sold as scrap, Snead estimated.
“They were leftover parts from a job 25 years ago and, as such, had not been inventoried. They were pretty old and rusty,” he said.
In the aftermath of the incident, resident Dave Ulsch suggested at a Town Board meeting last week, that Snead himself should be held accountable for the theft and for making the town whole.
Ted Daktor was dismissive of the notion.
“It’s ridiculous to think that Parker is involved in these items being missing,” he said in a statement.
“He has never been interested in taking [his own] scrap from the boat company [he owns] to the scrap yards. For years, he has given me his heavy engine parts and scrap metal, and considered it a service to have them removed from his property,” Daktor said.
The investigation remains ongoing.