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One local newspaper likes Timothy Demler so much it recently named him "Best Town Supervisor." In editorials, he is praised for reducing taxes in the Town of Wheatfield, despite his critics' claims that he has done so only by piling on additional debt.
Documents obtained by the Reporter show Demler knows a thing or two about debt. Numerous judgments against him and two businesses he operated, amounting to tens of thousands of dollars in bad debt, stick out like so many sore thumbs in the records of the city courts of Niagara Falls, Buffalo and Tonawanda, as well as the New York State Supreme Court and the Niagara County Court.
"He's like a Teflon man," one Wheatfield politician said. "When it comes to Tim Demler, these things just don't get brought up."
Many of Demler's money woes can be linked to two businesses he operated with his then wife, Linda Bearfield, who since has been wanted by police on forgery and petit larceny charges. Niagara Falls police arrested Bearfield on March 7, 2000, on charges she stole a woman's purse and then used the victim's bank withdrawal slips to take more than $700 from her account.
The two businesses, Advertec Associates and the Tedlyn Group, not only stiffed numerous private creditors like The Buffalo News, Niagara Mohawk, National Business Systems and WNY Executive Leasing, court records show, but had 13 warrants totaling more than $35,000 issued against them by the New York State Tax Commissioner, Industrial Commissioner and Department of Labor Unemployment Insurance Division.
The warrants, liens and judicial judgments date from between 1987 and 1999. While some have been satisfied, many others remain outstanding.
And lawyers and collection agencies representing Buffalo General, St. Mary's and DeGraff hospitals, Advanced Homecare of Western New York and other health care providers currently are trying to sort out a mountain of debt incurred by Demler after he suffered a heart attack in September 1996 and was involved in an automobile accident in the winter of 1997.
Buffalo General Hospital alone is trying to collect more than $70,000. Insurance claims relating to Demler's ailment and injuries subsequently were denied, leaving the Republican town supervisor potentially responsible for the bills, records show.