NORWICH – Two employee departures in the county’s mental health department have resulted in lawmakers asking one to stay on board longer in order to transition new personnel.

Chenango County Mental Hygiene Services Director Mary Ann Spryn will officially retire Feb. 27 after 21 years on the job. She accepted an offer last week, however, to stay on through mid-March. The unexpected departure of her administrative officer, Tom Crounse, precipitated the county’s move.

“We lost her financial officer. There will be two new people. We have to help these two people get started,” said Personnel Committee Chairman Wayne Outwater, R-Lincklaen.

Crounse has assisted Spryn for the past 8 1/2 years in overseeing the department’s budgets for mental health, alcohol and drug, and intensive case management services. The three budgets combined total in excess of $5 million.

Outwater said a candidate had been hired to replace Spryn and two candidates were being interviewed for Crounse’s job. Though salary amounts were not mentioned, Outwater said Spryn’s replacement would be paid less than her 2010 salary of $91,864, and the difference would be her consultant’s stipend.

During a meeting of the county’s Finance Committee last Thursday, Vice Chairman Dennis Brown, D-Pharsalia, asked whether the Health and Human Services Committee had considered combining Crounse’s duties with that of another department’s administrative officer. That committee’s Chairman, Jeffrey Blanchard, R-Pitcher, said an interdepartmental review determined that the position was “too big” and the mental health department “needed to have a stand alone person.”