For part of this year, Kelly A. Wahl, who resigned last week from the Aurora Town Board, did not live in the town.

In recent months, some town officials privately had complained that Wahl, 32, was living in the Town of Orchard Park. Still, Aurora officials had not addressed the matter publicly and didn’t have any clear answers Monday night.

Wahl’s situation came to a head when she abruptly resigned Wednesday in a two-sentence e-mail to Town Clerk Martha Librock, with her resignation effective the same day.

Wahl, chief data tax clerk for the Erie County Office of Real Property Services, had told The Buffalo News that she had encountered difficulty in juggling the time necessary for her elected position with her other responsibilities.

Less than 24 hours after her resignation, state police arrested Wahl on a charge of aggravated driving while intoxicated, a misdemeanor, after troopers said she recorded a blood-alcohol level of 0.19 percent, more than twice the state’s legal limit.

She was stopped at 2:39 a. m. Thursday on Transit Road in Elma, state police said.

Wahl, a former Aurora budget officer and assistant to former Supervisor Terence M. Yarnall before winning election as a councilwoman in 2007 — had two years remaining in her term.

The Town Board on Monday formally accepted Wahl’s resignation and announced that it will accept resumes through next Monday from applicants seeking to be appointed to the council post for 2010.

Wahl’s term runs through 2011, but candidates would have to run for the last year of her term in next November’s election.

A handful of residents asked that the new administration and Town Board taking office in January make the appointment for 2010 instead of the current board with an outgoing supervisor and retiring councilman.

“I can’t understand why Kelly resigned abruptly like this,” Councilman Jeffrey Harris said. “I was dumbfounded to read about this in the paper. Wouldn’t you finish a calendar year up? I’m wondering if she resigned because of the DWI, and if so, then why not come clean on it?”

When contacted by The Buffalo News on Monday, Wahl insisted that she submitted her Town Board resignation last Wednesday prior to her arrest. She insisted her resignation was filed Wednesday and a copy of it obtained by The News was dated Nov. 18.

Wahl declined to discuss reasons behind her resignation or the charge, saying she has an attorney.

“It happened after I resigned. It’s a private matter and I want to keep it that way,” she said.

Wahl also declined to discuss the residency issue, saying it was a personal matter. She provided police with a Town of Orchard Park address when they pulled her over last week. The address provided is on Countryside Lane.

Town Supervisor Dwight Krieger acknowledged to The News recently that he was aware of talk that Wahl did not reside in Aurora.

“We thought she was not living in Aurora, but had no official knowledge about it,” he said Monday night when questioned about it. He said he’d heard the rumors for the last four to six months.

“It did not appear she was in violation of the town residency policy,” Krieger said. “. . . We were waiting to see how things worked out.”

Asked about the residency issue last week, Town Attorney Ronald P. Bennett said: “There’s always a difference between residency and domicile. I don’t know where she lived or what she was doing, but she resigned, so that ends it.”

Wahl is scheduled to appear in Elma Town Court at 7 p. m. Dec. 10 on the DWI charge.