From delivering newspapers in eighth grade, to reporting local news for decades, Jeremy Schiffres has always enjoyed disseminating information. For the past four months, he has continued to do just that in the new position of Public Information Officer for the Town of Hurley.

The title, unique to Hurley compared to most towns in the region, entails traits of public relations and social media coordinator combined. Since taking on the position in mid-November, Schiffres has started a print and digital newsletter devoted to the goings-on in Hurley. He manages the town’s social media pages and keeps the town’s website updated with news and documents for upcoming meetings, events, closures, and weather alerts. He also writes press releases and acts as an intermediary between town officials and the press.

Hurley’s town board created the position last fall to fill a communication gap with residents and the press. New York State law requires that towns provide agendas and other documents to the public ahead of open meetings, a rule that sometimes fell by the wayside in Hurley. At the October 2022 meeting approving Schiffres’ appointment, Town Supervisor Melinda McKnight noted that residents had complained about documents not being available or not being able to find documents on the town’s website.

“The process of disseminating public information here was just shared among whoever had time,” said Schiffres. “Nobody had time because it's a small employment group up here, and everybody has their own jobs.”

Last fall, Schiffres was nursing the early retirement blues following a January downsizing layoff from the Daily Freeman. “Bored” and looking for a way to apply his skills, he jumped at the opportunity when Peter Humphries, a Hurley Town Board member and mutual acquaintance, reached out to him about the position of Public Information Officer.

“That's my wheelhouse - writing, editing, assembling, sharing information,” Schiffres said. “That's what I've done forever.”

Schiffres had been drawn to news and information since he was a kid.

“Early on, I started reading newspapers, watching the six o'clock news until I was old enough to stay up and watch the 11 o'clock news,” he said.

In eighth grade, he started work as a newspaper delivery boy. He joined his high school newspaper club and later applied to Buffalo State, the only SUNY at that time with a journalism program. After graduating college, he worked as copy editor at a paper he interned with in school. In 1988, he applied to a copy editing position at a paper in Kingston, near where his wife Rhona grew up.

He had actually been in the paper’s office once before, several years earlier, to bring in his engagement announcement. But the second time Schiffres walked into the Daily Freeman’s office, it was the beginning of a 34-year stint as a copy editor and city editor. Schiffres never expected to stay in the area for long, but once he was promoted to city editor, he and Rhona bought a house in Kingston, had a kid, and have been here ever since.

“We love this area,” he said.

As a Kingston resident, Schiffres said he feels he is able to maintain a sense of objectivity in his job as Hurley’s Public Information Officer. Though familiar with the Hurley area and its history through his work at the Freeman, the town’s policies do not directly affect him.

“I'm not working for these people because I necessarily agree with them on policy matters,” he said. “My job is promotion of the town and its message and not how I feel about policy.”

To an extent, Schiffres’ position strays into the field many longtime journalists would mock - that of public relations. But Schiffres said that because much of his work, such as sharing discussion materials for open meetings, remains within the bounds of simple dissemination, he feels he has just taken a new direction in work he loves.

“Yeah, it's a little PR-ish, because you're promoting rather than reporting, but I find that the things I write still are written like a reporter would write them rather than an advertising guy would write them,” he said, adding, “It's the same tools; it's the same tasks - it's learning information, processing the information, presenting it, writing it up, getting it out there to whomever by whatever means we have now.”

Ultimately, Schiffres regards his position as an important effort by the town to communicate with the public.

“Slowly, people are recognizing that we have a new, intensive effort here to disseminate information and more and more, they're coming to us,” he said.