NORWICH – Appointing Chenango County supervisors to fill seven committees vacancies, including two open chair and one vice chair positions, was probably a little trickier than Board Chairman Richard B. Decker would have liked.

The Republican from North Norwich had the sole responsibility for filling the openings this morning. With three of the four supervisors elected to a first term this fall voting against him for board chairman last week, and two of them being fellow party members, the longtime chairman no doubt revisited his preliminary roster of selections.

After last Monday’s vote, which gave the majority of weighted votes needed to earn him a 13th year in office, Decker told his audience that he recognized that supervisors “were all in politics” and that “politics is the name of the game.” But afterward, when asked about the unprecedented challenge to his seat, he said government was “not a matter of politics with me.”

Republican Supervisors William C. Craine of Sherburne and Linda E. Natoli, who represents Wards 4, 5, and 6 in the City of Norwich, both accepted nominations and seconds from the floor in an effort to unseat Decker. Though Craine was just elected to office in November, he was chairman of the Chenango County Board of Supervisors from 1977 to 1979. Natoli has represented the city since 1994. Craine voted for himself. But while Natoli did not vote for herself and indeed sided with Decker, her nomination was still a challenge to Decker’s position.