FLY CREEK - With less than a week to go until the Dec. 13 Fly Creek fire district election, the slate of candidates set to appear on the ballot remains uncertain.

Board secretary Yvonne Colby did not show at an informal meeting Nov. 30 at which commissioners Mark Weir and Julie Pernat offered to sit down with Otsego town clerk Pam Deane to check the validity of the petitions submitted by candidates seeking election to the fire board. Attempts to call her that night were unsuccessful, Weir said.

Colby had not responded to several messages left Monday and Tuesday as of press time Wednesday.

While Colby did not commit to attending the informal meeting at the Nov. 10 fire board meeting, without the petitions the group was unable to verify that the submitted petitions were acceptable, Weir said.

Weir said he did not think she was committed to being at the Nov. 30 meeting and could not remember how the board decided the petitions would be there.

"According to the state, it's the secretary's responsibility (to accept and hold on petitions)," Weir said, in response to a question about why he or Pernat did not take the petitions directly from the Nov. 30 meeting.

At the last fire board meeting, Fly Creek residents Richard H. Carr, Edward L. Kukenberger, Wolfgang J. Merk and Elizabeth A. Staffin submitted petitions and turned in notarized slips affirming their residency and interest to Colby. Weir said he was unaware of any other candidates who may have submitted petitions to Colby.

Carr is seeking election to the unexpired one-year term as fire commissioner, Kukenberger a five-year term, Merk the two-year unexpired term and Staffin a one-year unexpired term as district treasurer. The five-year term is opening up after Dean Colby's term expires and the two unexpired terms opened when Pat Rhyde and Patty Pernat resigned in June. Colby has said he will not run again.

Carr lives on Tripp Hill Road in the hamlet and has been a full-time resident in the area for 10 years. He said he was running because he wanted to help resolve the current unrest that has been plaguing fire board meetings.

"It just seems that it's a bit of a mess and it needs some fresh blood in there," he said.

Kukenberger lives on State Route 28 in the hamlet and has been in the area all his life. He said one thing he'd like to see if elected is the return of an EMT squad to the department.

"I guess we just want to bring a little sincerity and trust back to the fire hall," he said.

Merk lives in Bissell Road in Cooperstown and has lived in the Fly Creek area for 15 years.

He said he'd like to straighten out the fire department and open it up more to town access.

Staffin was elected treasurer in a special election to fill the remaining two years of an unexpired term in early March after a special election to fill the position in February resulted in some confusion. On the advice of then-attorney Andrew Puritz, the board held a second special election in which Staffin received 137 votes.

The fire board then voted at their May meeting to nullify the results of Staffin's election, appointing her to the position shortly after.

While it remains to be seen if their names will be on the ballot Dec. 13, William N. Young, counsel to the Association of Fire Districts of the State of New York, said town law supported the validity of write-in candidates for fire district elections.

"Each ballot should contain a blank space for write-in candidates," Young said.

The election is being held between 6 p.m. and 9 p.m. in the Fly Creek fire hall Dec. 13. Eligible voters are those who have resided in the fire district for 30 days prior to the election.