The Town of Wilson and its Republican committee have finalized their picks to fill multiple vacant seats on the town board.
Charles Flynn and Timothy Kropp have been selected by the town board to fill two vacancies on the board that resulted from the resignations of town supervisor Doyle Phillips last month and board member Bob Hull in December. Flynn and Kropp will be sworn in at the board’s next work session, at 3 p.m. Feb. 7, and will serve through Dec. 31.
Those two seats will be on the November ballot, for four-year terms of office, and the town GOP committee has endorsed Flynn and Kropp as its candidates in the election, according to committee chair Anne Basile.
Tony Evans, the town board member and deputy supervisor who rose to the supervisor’s post on an interim basis with Phillips’ departure, also secured the committee’s endorsement in the November town supervisor contest.
Phillips, whose 2023 bid for reelection was unopposed, tendered his resignation at the town board’s Jan. 3 work session, two days after taking his oath of office for the fifth time.
Following his departure, Phillips, 81, told the Union-Sun & Journal that he had decided to leave the post last fall, after his wife was confronted with a series of health-related issues.
According to Basile, who also is a town board member, four Republicans and one Democrat were interviewed by the board as it prepared to appoint two new members. The same five were also interviewed by eight members of the Republican committee, Basile said.
Flynn is retired after stints with the U.S. Treasury Department’s Cheektowaga Office and is a former commissioner of the Buffalo Municipal Housing Authority.
He served as the vice chairperson of the New York state Independence Party from 1998 to 2002.
Kropp is a member of the Wilson school board and previously worked as a lineman and supervisor for New York Power Authority.