WILSON — A letter making several bold claims against town Supervisor Tony Evans has caused controversy amongst town officials and residents.
The letter, which included comments about Evans’ race, has been received by numerous town residents in their mail since Friday.
“For someone to hide under the cloak of anonymity, and then start putting fake names behind a disgusting, deplorable ladder like this… is infuriating,” Evans told the Union-Sun & Journal on Monday.
The author, who only identified themself as “Josh W,” claims that they recently visited the town hall and was greeted by Evans.
“I was met in the front hall by an African American guy. I asked how I could speak to the Supervisor. He replied, ‘You’re looking at him.’ I couldn’t understand when this happened,” the letter reads.
Evans said that no such interaction with that person ever occurred.
“(I was) surprised and disappointed that in this day and age this kind of tone has to come out,” he said.
Evans is currently serving as town supervisor on an interim basis following the resignation of Doyle Phillips in January and he is running for a four-year term of office in the November election. Evans previously was a town board member, for three years, all of which time he was the deputy town supervisor.
Evans first became aware of the letter early Friday as it began circulating amongst town residents.
The letter claimed that Phillips, the former supervisor, “got a DWI in Niagara Falls last year” and implied that Phillips reached out to Evans, a retired Niagara County sheriff’s deputy, to “fix things” for him.
“Evans did and Doyle promised to make him the first black supervisor of Wilson, NY. He appointed him Deputy Supervisor, ran for re-election, fully intending to retire after he was sworn in and that makes Evans our supervisor,” the letter stated.
Evans denied those claims and said Phillips denied them too.
“The irony of it is there’s a high volume of turnover within the sheriff’s department, just like in all departments in every place. I know very few road patrol personnel out there,” Evans said.
The letter also claimed Evans wants to develop “public housing” in Wilson since he was a “member” of the Southern Christian Leadership Council.
That’s a lie, Evans said, adding, “Personally, I think that was a racial shot they were trying to throw at me.”
Evans and Anne Basile, town board member and chair of the town Republican Committee, both said the Wilson town government has not considered any such development.
“(Niagara County Action Plan) can do more with what little money we give them than we could ever do with trying to establish public housing, and with the funds that the town of Wilson commits to (them), they support several families within the township of Wilson,” Evans said. “So that would be the route that I would encourage the board to go if the board feels like we need to do something.”
“We’d be happy to send you the minutes where that was discussed, because there will be none,” Basile added.
The letter writer encouraged recipients to contact Basile, whose phone number was included, to discourage the “public housing” project.
Evans encouraged residents who have questions or issues to simply stop by the town hall.
“If you have a problem with me please come in talk, sit down and have a conversation,” he said.