TOWN OF HIGHLAND, NY — “You don’t understand; you don’t understand. You wanna go to work with snakes? I’m done. You have to do something about this,” said Town of Highland Court Clerk Patty Summa to the town board at their May 13 meeting.

Summa brought two photos printed out of snake skin shedding she found at the courthouse. One was placed on top of a pickup truck hatchback for size comparison and ran the entire span. 

She said she saw a snake just feet from her desk the previous Wednesday that was between 16 and 18 inches in length, and urged the board that something had to be done to fix the situation immediately. 

Board member Tom Migliorino acknowledged the issue. “We’re going to try to do something,” he said, and said the snake situation historically worsens in the spring. 

Plans to renovate the courthouse in Barryville are underway. The town was awarded $250,000 in a State and Municipal (SAM) Facilities grant, facilitated by former assemblymember Aileen Gunther, to conduct renovations on the courthouse, which was built in 1903. The renovation will focus on restoring the deteriorating exterior walls and foundation.

Town supervisor John Pizzolato said the architect’s proposal for the renovation does focus on these core structural issues: “First and foremost, [the grant] will be spent on securing the roof, securing the foundation, and securing the floor joists.”

“Patty, we’re going to work as exponentially as we can,” the supervisor added. 

When will the work be done? Summa wanted to know. 

“It’s a process,” Migliorino said. 

In the meantime, Migliorino said he will purchase a snake product from Home Depot that he tried last spring, which he said seemed to help a little. 

“We are trying to secure the courthouse and get it to a place where we can invite the public in[to a] snake-free [environment] and, obviously, the employees’ day-to-day [will] not [have to] deal with snake remediation. So we’re very sorry for that,” Pizzolato said.