NORWICH – Chenango County is currently one of four counties in New York that can claim to be debt-free, according to data interpreted from the state comptroller’s office.

The last remaining check, in the amount of $225,000 owed on borrowed money for building the $3 million solid waste landfill in Pharsalia back in the mid 1990s, was written last May. There’s been a tone of celebration within committee and board meetings ever since.

Upon learning Chenango was among a small, prestigious group of fiscally-sound counties, Board of Supervisors Chairman Lawrence Wilcox, R-Oxford, said, “It’s certainly a proud moment. It speaks very well for the past boards of supervisors and treasurer (William E. Evans, who served from 1986 to 2010) and the department heads and our employees who put us in that shape. We are team players at the county level.”

Treasurer William C. Craine, who came on board in 2011, takes no credit for the Board of Supervisors’ fiscal prudence that led to its debt-free stature. “Those wheels were spinning long before I came into office,” he said. “It’s really a feather in the cap for the county.”

But when asked how the county’s excellent fiscal health could be achieved when juxtaposed with the fact that its property owners are the 36th highest taxed in the nation, Wilcox said, “Taxpayers are really hurting, and you can thank the people in Albany who keep giving us mandates. But it’s not miraculous; our status is based on sound, good fiscal management and control.”