WHEATFIELD — Town Board members have accused Supervisor Timothy E. Demler of paying contractors without board approval and then taking campaign contributions from the contractors.

Demler characterized the allegations as an attempt to smear him two weeks before a hotly contested Republican Party primary in which he faces a challenge from former Town Justice Robert B. Cliffe.

In a news release issued Tuesday, Councilman Larry L. Helwig, Demler’s leading foe on the board, said the public was entitled to an explanation of why the town Republican committee revoked Demler’s endorsement in June.

Many of the allegations dated back to 2005 and 2006, yet nothing was said of them when Demler, with party backing, won his seventh term in the 2007 election.

“We didn’t know about this stuff in 2007,” Helwig said. He said he and the other councilmen believed that their votes not to pay the bills were sufficient to prevent payments.

Demler said the board later voted to pay the bills after having put them on hold to seek further information.

Helwig said the material was sent in June to the Niagara County district attorney’s office, the state attorney general’s office and the FBI.

“I want to present the facts to residents of Wheatfield,” Helwig said. “Why we didn’t endorse Tim was the big question. On June 6 [when the town GOP committee chose Cliffe] we didn’t give the residents a lot of facts.”

“This is standard Larry procedure, half-truths and lies,” Demler retorted. “They waited until two weeks before the primary to dirty me because they’re behind.”

The major accusations against Demler are:

In February 2006, he paid

Mark Cerrone, a local contractor, $13,000 for work at Willow Lake, a town subdivision, and Cerrone then paid $1,800 for a bus to take Demler and supporters to Albany during Demler’s abortive 2006 effort to run for lieutenant governor.

Helwig said the board had voted Jan. 31, 2006, to hold the payment because the town hadn’t hired Cerrone for what Helwig called landscaping work.

Demler said Cerrone was completing erosion control work, not landscaping, that the town already had paid for. He said Cerrone was hired because his firm already was working for the subdivision developer.

Cerrone died in 2007, but George Churakos, president of the company that still bears Cerrone’s name, said Cerrone was asked for a quote by Demler, town drainage chairman Ronald Moore and Highway Superintendent Arthur Kroening. He denied the payment for the campaign bus had anything to do with the Willow Lake work.

“Mark was always a generous man. He donated all over the place,” Churakos said.

Helwig also cited the demolition of a rat-infested house on Knoll Drive last year. The Cerrone firm submitted the lowest bid, $105 less than its nearest competitor, but later requested an additional $2,500 before making two contributions, totaling $600, to Demler’s campaign. Helwig said the extra payment wasn’t warranted because the bid package allowed an additional charge only if asbestos removal was required. But Churakos and Demler said a mixture of rat waste and sewage in the house’s basement had to be taken to a landfill, justifying the extra expense.

Helwig said Demler paid Fontanese Architects $9,000 in 2004 and 2005 for work on the design of the town’s never-built aquatic center and then received more than $8,000 in campaign contributions from Savarino Construction Service. Helwig said Fontanese “apparently had been retained by Savarino to work on this project.”

“Those services were supposed to be free to the town,” former Councilman Arthur Palmer said.

But Sam Savarino, owner of Savarino Construction, said he did not hire Fontanese, a company not affiliated with his, and never worked on the aquatic center for the town.

Demler said he hired Fontanese after touring a pool building in Erie County that the firm had designed.

At one time, Savarino said, he regularly contributed to Demler’s campaigns. But he and Demler agreed that some of the contributions had to be refunded because they exceeded the legal limit.

Harvey Albond, a longtime political figure in Niagara County, was paid $7,100 in 2006 and 2007.

Demler said the Town Board held Albond’s bills but eventually approved their payment; Helwig denied that.

“Under state law, I have statutory authority to appoint a representative to the [Niagara County] Greenway Commission,” Demler said. He said Albond was that representative.

“The Town Board appointed Larry Helwig and Art Palmer to represent the town at the Greenway Commission,” Helwig said. “I believe Tim Demler voted for that.”

Helwig acknowledged, however, that Albond attended most of the meetings.

“He was representing Tim, maybe. The Town Board didn’t agree to it,” Helwig said.