Just shy of two months into her administration, Woodstock Supervisor Anula Courtis is balancing structural reform with unfinished business.

A Level 3 sex offender whom the Town Board voted to terminate remains actively employed in the town’s maintenance department, Courtis confirmed in an interview with The Overlook News, saying the matter is now in the hands of newly retained labor counsel.

At the same time, Courtis is advancing a sweeping reorganization of the town’s maintenance operations, carving the department into distinct custodial, parks and recreation, and skilled maintenance divisions, while navigating snow storm remediation, infrastructure questions and the realities of having to run again in 2026 under New York’s new even-year election law.

When she first took office in January, Courtis said she was still trying to gain access to the supervisor’s email account passed down from former Supervisor Bill McKenna. Now, she says, the transition phase is largely over.

“We’re moving more into steady state now,” she said.

Below are excerpts from our conversation, edited for clarity and length. 

You’ve described reforming the current maintenance department into custodial, maintenance, and parks and recreation divisions. What’s the main goal?

Courtis: The main goal is to better maintain our properties. Right now maintenance happens on a few properties proactively, and the rest are reactive. If a tree falls at the dog park, someone calls and we respond. There’s not necessarily proactive management of the land.

My plan is to reorganize maintenance into clear functions. One division remains custodial, waxing floors, vacuuming, picking up trash, all very important functions. The other division is Parks and Recreation. That group would maintain town properties proactively, on a schedule.

They would understand their tasks, trimming trees, maintaining areas like Big Deep, and that would be their job. They wouldn’t be pulled to wax floors or empty garbage cans.

There’s also actual maintenance. Currently our maintenance department does not do carpentry-level maintenance. For example, there’s a plywood ramp at the town clerk’s office. The bluestone under it is crushed and unstable. At the police station, the ramp is wobbly.

Right now we outsource that to highway or outside companies. If we hired someone with basic plumbing and strong carpentry skills, we would save money. It would streamline the process. We wouldn’t have to go out to bid for everything. Even though it’s a higher-skilled labor position, it would save money and allow us to react and prioritize faster.

There’s also cemetery maintenance. We have someone who knows the cemetery like the back of his hand. That role will be more clearly defined and formalized so we ensure that property continues to be treated with respect.

New York’s new “even-year” election law means local officials with two-year terms must run again in 2026. How is this impacting what you’re able to accomplish as supervisor, knowing that you are going into a campaign season so soon. How does that impact your thinking?

Courtis: My thought process remains the same. It is exhausting. Coming into office with a large storm, a large fire, and a handful of major items has been challenging. We’re doing it.

We’re moving more into steady state now. Having to run again is a little frustrating. I just got here. Now I have to run again, and you can’t campaign from the job. The job is many hours a week, so you squeeze that in.

My hope is local people don’t get lost in big elections. When there’s a Trump versus Kamala race, where do supervisors and council people fall? Local politics are critical. It’s the thing we have the most control over. Hopefully we don’t get lost in the shuffle.

It’s not changing my thinking. My intention is to do the things I said I would do, some big, some small. I’ve started most of them right out of the gate.

Sources close to the issue believe that the Zena Homes project will get a Neg Dec, meaning development will not have a significant adverse effect on the environment in the Town of Ulster – how do you view Woodstock’s role in this project?  

Courtis: The Planning Board is responsible for the project, but there’s potentially significant impact to Woodstock’s emergency and other resources. The town attorneys are working with the Planning Board attorneys. We’ve written a letter and supported the Planning Board while staying in our lane.

We want to make sure we’re doing the best thing for our residents and our resources — roads, water, wear and tear, emergency personnel. We’re not overstaffed. It’s a wait and see.

You mentioned possible missed grant opportunities for water infrastructure. Are you investigating that?

Courtis: It’s been two months with a lot going on. I’m not actively investigating that right now.

We have a DWSP2 plan with an implementation outline by the state. The state can help us get grants. That would involve water experts and probably Michelle Hinchey’s office. I’ve also had one discussion with Pat Ryan about infrastructure.

These grants could help us move faster. It’s likely something I’ll focus on in the next couple of months.

Tying into 10 Church Road, the town is clear we want full remediation. There are legal discussions underway. The right documents have been turned over to legal. The goal is to create a legal pathway to resolution. The numbers for remediation could be significant, which ties into what type of grant we pursue first.

None of these items were budgeted this year, but it’s work we’re going to do.

Is the Level 3 sex offender who was hired and then fired still working in maintenance?

Courtis: Yes. He is still actively working in maintenance.

Do you believe he was terminated by the Town Board?

Courtis: One hundred percent.

We hired a new employment and labor attorney last Tuesday, and her firm is aware of the situation.

What are you most proud of from the last two months, and what are you actively working on?

Courtis: Quite a number of things. One of the things I’m working on is snow removal. To me, that’s about safety and access. We prioritize emergency routes and main town roads, then neighborhoods, and then post-storm cleanup. The highway department is working really hard.

One of the things I’m reviewing with the highway superintendent is the billing and tracking of hours. Currently the town is being charged FEMA equipment rates to have snow removed from non-town roads like 212. That’s something we’re working through to figure out how we may be able to manage costs more efficiently and responsibly for residents, and at the same time improve service.

I’m proud that we’ve come to better understand communication styles. I’m responsible for providing the project plan, and he’s responsible for the operations. They’re really good people there. It’s up to him to manage the resources and who didn’t sleep for two or three days. It’s a hard-working crew. We’re going to look at the finances and maybe better budget for it moving forward so that we have a snow removal bucket in our budget.

Given this year, we’ve had more snow than in the last 10 years, all in two months. It’s an important topic. It really is safety and access. We’re a tourist town. We’re a town with many elders. It’s important to get right, and I’m confident we’re on a good track.

Another thing we’re talking about is equipment and vehicle maintenance. The town doesn’t really have a plan to manage our fleet of vehicles. Our police department has older vehicles. A lot of the maintenance department equipment is falling apart. There’s no plan to manage that.

I’m working with the appropriate people to look at how we manage our costs, get maintenance, but reduce the maintenance fee. Do we lease vehicles moving forward? Do we outsource vehicle maintenance? What does that actually look like?

That may tie into climate smart work. My office reactivated the Climate Smart Communities Task Force. One of the things they have to do is look at our fleet of vehicles. That will help us understand how old vehicles are, what we have, what we need to keep, what we need to purchase, and come up with a comprehensive plan to update equipment. It’s not just vehicles. It’s equipment like a bobcat or snow blowers that in some cases are falling apart. We want proper equipment so maintenance staff aren’t spending a large chunk of their time fixing equipment instead of doing maintenance work.

You also mentioned police initiatives. What’s happening there?

Courtis: Both previous police task forces recommended that accreditation should be completed. I signed that paperwork and we’ve started the process for police accreditation. That’s big. It will help raise standards and increase the training every officer receives. Everything will jump up in terms of expectations and standards.

Our police force wants more training. This is a way to help get that and support their continued improvements, both personal and professional development.

We’re also focusing more on youth outreach. We assigned a police officer to be a liaison with youth, working with Patrick at the youth center. We feel departments can work together for the betterment of our community, particularly our younger community.

Noah Eckstein is the editor-in-chief of The Overlook. Send correspondence to noah@theoverlooknews.com.