Mostly, these candidates are fresh faces who haven’t held elected to office or ever sat on the Village Board. Only one incumbent -- Shari Osborn -- is running for re-election, and even then she’s not running for a full four-year term.
No matter which way voters cast their ballot on May 3, they can be sure the mix of people on the Village Board will be radically different from what it has been.
Some candidates, like Amy Cohen or Martin Sherow, are running with big slates of other candidates with their Groovy Blueberry and One New Paltz parties. Those slates generally include a number of trustees and a mayoral candidate. Others, like Kip Ruger, Rick Bunt and Ariana Basco, have decided to run alone without the support of a full slate.
For voters, the distinction of party or slate might have very little to do with who they choose as their elected leaders. Nobody has to vote for a full slate, and citizens can mix and match any way they see fit.
Given the myriad of choices, it’s not hard to envision an Election Day that ends with a new mayor seated on a board with a random three trustees who ran on opposing tickets.
Ariana Basco
Ariana Basco moved to New Paltz seven years ago, coming to town to attend SUNY New Paltz in 2004. Since then, she’s worked with the consumer protection and advocacy group NYPIRG as a project coordinator in charge of community outreach.
“That’s how I got involved in politics,” she said.
After leaving that job in 2010, Basco now works as a bartender at Snug Harbor Tavern in New Paltz. For the last few years, she’s also volunteered her time as an appointed member of the town’s Police Commission.
Despite running on her own slate with the Positive Party, Basco is closely associated with former Mayor Jason West and they share many Green Party ideals -- including a similar stance on the proposed village noise ordinance.
In terms of why she wants to become a Village Board member, she said she had caught the political bug in her time in New Paltz.
“Local politics is absolutely my passion,” Basco said. “I see a lot of potential here in New Paltz. We have an opportunity here.”
In her work with the town government on the Police Commission, Basco has gotten to know the inner workings of Town Hall -- that’s an asset she sees as something that could help her mend the relationship between the town and village. “I’m somebody who’s a bridge builder,” she said.
Not only could the town-village relationship be better, but Basco said she’d like to work to repair the relationship between the village and the SUNY New Paltz campus.
When asked what she would bring as a new member of the Village Board, Basco said she’d like to see the village empower volunteers, attract new businesses and help out farms.
“My objective is to govern,” she said. “Leaders aren’t just supposed to lead, they’re supposed to create more leaders.”
Village leaders can do more to attract good businesses to Main Street, as well as to promote existing stores downtown. Basco said she’d like to see the village work with the Ulster County Transit Authority to help set up better opportunities and “expand public transportation to include Woodland Pond and the Park & Ride.”
“I want to do more to support our local farmers,” she said. “I think that could be fostered by the village.”
Basco said she’s taking a “wait-and-see” approach to the potential consolidation of the town and village.
“I would definitely like to see the study completed, before I make any decisions,” she said, adding that there’s definitely room for more efficiency.
“I definitely see areas where we could have more shared services,” she said, adding that consolidation needed to be approached thoughtfully before dramatic restructuring of the government happens. “We have to study the effectiveness of the government.”
The candidate said she thought the strained relationship between firefighters and Village Hall could improve drastically through building trust and communication. “I think that’s another thing that comes down to cooperation,” Basco said.
Basco would like to work to rehabilitate the current system before moving to a district or other means of fire service.
“We rely upon them to save our lives,” she said. “I think giving them what they need is important.”
Basco is another person who didn’t exactly like the way the proposed noise ordinance came out of the subcommittee and onto the board table.
“I think we definitely need a noise ordinance. I don’t know if this one tackles the problems that we have,” she said. “I think what we’re dealing with is a lack of communication, rather than something that needs to be legislated.”
A lot of good could come from a communication between neighbors with noise complaints, she said.
Rick Bunt
Rick Bunt made a name for himself last year as one of the founding members of Unite Our District -- a group which was opposed to the New Paltz Middle School Renovation.
“Unite Our District opposed a proposal that would have cost the tax payers $80 million of debt. If this proposal had gone through, the total school budget costs would have increased tremendously,” Bunt said. “I am profoundly proud that the overwhelming defeat of this proposal by the voters constrained our deficit, resulting in our not having to lay off even more teachers.”
Outside of that, Bunt has also been a vocal critic of the proposed village noise ordinance, coming to Village Board meetings to speak his mind at public comment time.
Bunt, who works as a general contractor, owns his own general contracting business, and is a certified sustainable building advisor, has lived in New Paltz for many years. He has not run for office prior to this year.
“I was born and raised in New Paltz. I left for college and worked in New York City as a money manager. I came back to New Paltz because it’s my home,” he said. “I went to school at Pace University and received a degree in business management.”
Bunt said he was running because he felt the fighting and stalemates on the current Village Board had slowed down progress during an extremely important time.
“I am running for office to bring political balance to our government instead of divisiveness. We need fiscal responsibility during this difficult time for our economy,” he said. “I believe we need intelligent solutions to our problems rather than reactionary laws.”
When asked what he would bring to the table as a new face, Bunt cited his background as a business owner as a key experience.
“Because I am a critical thinker. I am open minded, willing to listen, my background in business and money management,” he said. “I am disciplined and hardworking.”
In terms of the potential consolidation of the village and town, Bunt had some concerns and a lot of questions he’d like to see answered before anything happens.
“It is a great idea -- to be one community, which we are,” he said. “But it’s an easy answer to a complicated issue and there are a lot of pitfalls which could have undesirable consequences.”
Bunt said he’d need to know what the legal fees and costs of the change would be, on top of how extensive the State Environmental Quality Review process would be, what the benefits would be and what would happen to the existing debts held by the town and village.
“At the end of the day, does this really benefit our community? We still have not received the final report from the consolidation consulting firm. So, the rush to a solution may be premature,” he added.
Bunt was also one of those people who didn’t like the noise ordinance as the draft is written now.
“While I am in favor of a noise ordinance, I think the present proposal is overly intrusive and the present law may not be as effective and enforceable as we would like,” he said. “I am in favor of studying and proposing a new noise ordinance which would meet the needs of our community while not being oppressive to any particular segment.”
As far as the Fire Department goes, Bunt said he would have done it a bit differently than the current Village Board.
“The New Paltz Fire Department should have all the resources they need and deserve the full support of our community,” he said.
Amy Cohen
Amy Cohen is the co-owner of Groovy Blueberry Inc. -- a job title that includes managing the retail store, organizing the national sales team, keeping track of wholesale prices, setting retail prices and paying the bills.
“I’m a very efficient business manager,” Cohen said. “I’m extremely talented. I’m a very good manager of people.”
A mother of three, Cohen has never run for elected office before. However, she has served as the vice president of the Jewish Federation of Ulster County. She’s lived in New Paltz for about 14 years. She also was a founding member of a group which helped to restore the Hasbrouck Park Playground in the late 1990’s.
Cohen said she felt that the village has changed immensely -- and for the worse -- in the past decade, saying she’s seen New Paltz decline under Terry Dungan and Jason West. “I feel that New Paltz is in a state of emergency,” she said.
Cohen sees herself as a champion of young families, poor people and children.
“I am absolutely beyond disgusted with the situation at Moriello Pool,” she said, adding that the gate to the playground should not have been locked. “I will do everything in my power to make that open to the full community.”
When asked what she’d bring to the table as a new trustee, Cohen said that she would be a trustee who treated everyone as her equal.
“Because they can trust me,” she said. She sees herself as a person who would be open and willing to listen to everyone’s point. “I do not ignore. I have an open-door policy.”
“I’m not on a board to make money,” Cohen said. “I’m not doing this for a job. I’m doing this as a community volunteer.”
Also, Cohen thinks that her experience as a manager and business owner would come in handy at the board table. She -- and the rest of the Groovy Blueberry slate -- would like voters to decide on issues through referendums as much as possible.
In terms of consolidation, the candidate said she felt that if it made sense and saved money, it could work. “If it makes sense, I think we should go for it,” she said, adding that she’d like to see the final report before she made any decisions.
Consolidation, she hopes, will also be a more efficient way to fix the sewer problems experienced by the village once and for all.
Like her other running mates, Cohen is absolutely opposed to the draft noise ordinance.
“I cannot stand the noise ordinance,” Cohen said. “I think that the people pushing for this are a small group.”
She called the ad-hoc group behind the noise ordinance a “clique” and said that they had no real official standing. Cohen also questioned the diversity of the group that drafted the law, pointing out that a majority of them were women and senior citizens.
“If you would like a quiet life, move to the woods,” she said. “If you can’t handle noise, don’t live in a college town.”
Also, Cohen said she feels that complaints to the police do work under the current law. “It’s never been a problem,” she said.
Cohen also said she’d like to see the Fire Department be fully supported by the village.
“I would do anything for the Fire Department,” Cohen said. “I think anybody who does not appreciate the Fire Department is disgusting.”
A lot of the problems between Village Hall and the firefighters could be sorted out if the board were willing to hear volunteer firefighters out. People need to communicate and “be honest and figure things out.”
Emily Crocetti
Emily Crocetti is a recent college graduate -- she graduated from SUNY New Paltz in 2010 with a bachelor’s degree in history, but she wants to go back for a masters. Right now, the Village Board hopeful works for the Groovy Blueberry Clothing Co. as their office manager, but she also spends her spare time as a glass artist. “I guess my passion would be blowing glass,” Crocetti said.
Crocetti has lived in New Paltz ever since she moved here for school. “I started working for the Cohens [Jonathan and Amy] when I got here in 2007,” she said. She felt comfortable with the Cohens -- who are now her running mates for Village Board -- and in many ways they became a second family to her.
On campus, Crocetti had been a member of NORML and Students for Sensible Drug Policy, groups which want to end the War on Drugs and change marijuana laws. The candidate said she’d like to serve as a bridge between the students on campus and the people living in the village proper.
“There are a lot of kids on campus who give students a bad name,” she said, adding that not everyone is like that -- not everybody is a “brain-dead party monster.”
Crocetti said she’d like to “be a voice for those students” who are responsible. “We’re a college town. We should start accepting that rather than repressing that.”
The candidate added that Village Hall is ruled right now by little turf wars and huge personalities.
“There’s a bit too much personal baggage that’s brought to the table,” she said, adding that the village needs a wake-up call.
When asked what she’d bring to the table, Crocetti said she’d like to see a government that’s much more transparent than it was under Jason West or Terry Dungan.
“There’s a blindness to what we’re actually here for,” Crocetti said about the current Village Board. “That’s a problem.”
“My objective, if I’m elected, is to be open ears,” she said. “I’m able to take criticism and work with it.”
Crocetti criticized the current Village Board for having too much of a sense of entitlement and being too fueled by the power of office. “Being a trustee does not give you authority,” she said, adding that trustees still need to listen to the community.
One thing that Crocetti is 100 percent opposed to is the proposed village noise ordinance. Neighbors have a much better option -- they can talk to each other, she said.
“To me, if you’re going to create an essentially anonymous ad-hoc group to write a law for the whole village,” you need to also listen to the public. Crocetti added that the ad-hoc group shouldn’t feel like its work is sacred and can’t be changed.
“I think that this law is counter intuitive to creating a cohesive community,” she said, adding that it pits neighbor against neighbor. “This isn’t New Paltz.”
For Crocetti, a potential consolidation of the village and town is something that will have to be studied in a serious way -- especially since it’s obvious that town residents don’t want to see their taxes spike for merging with the village.
“I think that there’s some serious merits that need to be assessed,” she said, pointing to the serious benefits to having one entity controlling water and sewer in New Paltz.
Supporting the Fire Department is also a priority for Crocetti, but one that will be shaped by the government efficiency group’s final report.
“I think that’s very important,” she said. “If we’re talking about not consolidating, then the Fire Department is the most important thing we can be talking about.”
Sally Rhoads
Locally, Sally Rhoads is known for a lot of things. Rhoads is a former president of the New Paltz Board of Education, where she served as a member for 15 years. She also served as the president of the Elting Library Board, and sat on that board for 10 years, during the lead-up to that building’s renovation.
Most recently, Rhoads has served on the government efficiency study group and sat on the ad-hoc group that helped write the controversial noise ordinance law.
“I’ve spent 41 years in New Paltz and all of it serving the community,” she said. “I’ve been on a lot of different boards.”
One reason she decided to run as a member of the One New Paltz Party is that she believes strongly that New Paltz should have only one municipal government.
“If we are one community, and I believe we are, then we should have one government,” Rhoads said. “I think economically, we have to be one government now.”
Rhoads said she’d also push for more civility in Village Hall. “I think we spent an awful lot of time recently being fractious and acrimonious,” she said, adding that she’d like the in-fighting to stop and is in favor of working to get things done.
Rhoads would also like to make Village Hall a much more transparent place. “I believe the village government owes a lot more respect to its community,” she said, adding that leaders need to be open and honest. People might not always agree with her, but Rhoads said she’d always listen.
Indirectly, many of the candidates here have attacked the group that Rhoads sits on -- the ad-hoc noise ordinance group. Rhoads pointed out the one reason work got started on a new noise ordinance was compromise itself.
“This was supposed to be a compromise,” she said of the law. In 2008, Susan Zimet and other crusaders had wanted to call for all the town’s bars to close at 2 a.m.
By writing the new noise law, Rhoads said it would give neighbors a mechanism to complain when their rights are infringed upon, but it also keeps bars open late.
“I have a whole different take on the noise ordinance than has come out … in public,” the candidate said. She defended the draft noise ordinance, calling it a law of civility and denying that it was anti-student. “This is sort of a statement about how we’re going to all get along together.”
She added that it was about “respecting everybody’s interests -- respecting everybody’s rights.”
In terms of the Fire Department, Rhoads said that the village could function a lot better if all volunteers, firefighters included, were given more respect.
“I think all community volunteers ought to be treated with thanks and respect,” she said, adding that volunteers need to be empowered. “You shouldn’t volunteer and then be criticized for what you’ve done or be ignored.”
Rhoads said that if elected, she would try to make the fire fighters and volunteers to village sub-committees feel like their time was worthwhile and very much appreciated.
“I’m so grateful that there are people willing to do this,” she said about the volunteer firefighters. “Not everybody can do everything.”
In terms of consolidation, Rhoads and her entire slate are in favor of the government efficiency study coming to its natural end.
“I believe that the issue of one community -- it’s time has come,” she said. “We now have the opportunity and the means to form one community.”
If Gov. Cuomo mandates that all towns and villages start to consolidate, which Rhoads sees as a real possibility, “it is far better for a community to design its own fate, than for its fate to be imposed.”
Kip Ruger
In New Paltz, Kip Ruger is mostly known as the owner and operator of Smitty’s Body Shop on North Chestnut Street. Ruger has lived in New Paltz for about 51 years, and he grew up here.
“I’ve lived here virtually my whole life,” he said.
The body shop owner has never run for elected office, however, he is a member of the village’s master plan taskforce and he’s been involved in the past as a fundraiser for the Jewish Community Center in New Paltz.
“I’m running for office because I feel like I have a lot to offer the community,” he said.
Ruger is running on the New Paltz Party ticket. He said he’d like to see if there’s a way to lower taxes, if possible, without hurting the core services that the Village of New Paltz has historically provided. He said he decided to run, in part, to help change the atmosphere at Village Hall and make government more transparent.
“I think our village residents have been kept out of the loop on a lot of issues,” he said.
If elected, Ruger said he’d push for an open and approachable Village Board.
When asked what attributes he might bring to the table, Ruger said that he’d be open to criticism.
“I think I can keep an open mind. I think I would not take things personal,” he said. “I would like to be your trusted trustee.”
With a party called the One New Paltz Party, there’s no doubt that the potential consolidation of the village and town is on a lot of people’s minds. However, Ruger said he really needed to see what the government efficiency study group came back with in their final report before making any decision.
“There’s no doubt there needs to be some sort of consolidation,” he said, adding that a business couldn’t run if it had two of every department. “There’s too many dual everything.”
Ruger said it was important for the community to have a say in what form of government comes next. “It’ll be up for the community to decide how to move forward.”
In the lead-up to campaign season, the current Village Board heard from many citizens who weren’t happy with the proposed noise ordinance. Ruger is one person who didn’t like the way the draft law came out.
“Well, we have a noise ordinance,” Ruger said, adding that he thought the current law worked pretty well and that he had misgivings about the way the draft law is written. Ruger said that he wanted to keep New Paltz a place where people could play guitar outside in a way respectful to their neighbors.
“We need to tweak it so it is enforceable,” he said. “To make it so restrictive is, I think, shooting ourselves in the foot. We don’t need 20 pages of noise ordinance.”
In terms of the volunteer New Paltz Fire Department, Ruger said he thought the Village Board could do much better in dealing with them.
“First of all, we need to support our heroes and give them what they need to be safe,” he said. “They work a lot of endless hours.”
It’s possible the government efficiency group might come back with a recommendation that the firefighters change into a fire district. So the real discussion about how to move forward with the Fire Department will come after the government consolidation study is finalized.
Ruger added: “Fire district or no, these guys have my support.”
Martin Sherow
Martin Sherow is a single parent who has lived in New Paltz for about six years, but he’s a virtual newcomer to the scene of village politics. He has never run for elected office before, but has been a union president for the Civil Service Employee Association Local 412.
Right now, he works at St. John Bosco Child & Family Services in Walden as a child care associate.
When he came to New Paltz in the 2000’s, he knew he liked what he saw. “I moved here because I visited often and I loved the place,” Sherow said.
As a person who wanted to help out the village as a volunteer, Sherow didn’t get too warm of a reception. He tried to get on the board studying consolidation and was turned down. Sherow said he experienced a mixed message coming from Village Hall during the [mayor Terry] Dungan years. They wanted volunteers, but they rejected or never called back people who did volunteer.
“We only need to watch what occurred over the last four years to see that it’s dysfunctional,” he said. In-fighting on the Village Board has also hampered a lot of progress. “That needs to stop.”
If the village government wasn’t fighting themselves, then they were fighting with the town. Sherow said he felt that led to an atmosphere where nothing got done. “Nobody has the time -- they’re too busy fighting each other.”
When asked what he thought he’d bring to the table if elected, Sherow said he’d didn’t have battle scars or luggage of someone who’s been deeply involved in village politics.
“I believe that I’m going to bring integrity over ego,” he said. “I’m more interested in what we can get done.”
He’d like to be a part of a Village Board that makes sound judgment calls based on real data. “I’m bringing a clean slate -- and therefore I have no baggage,” Sherow said.
Given the slate he’s running with -- the One New Paltz Party -- Sherow’s stance on a potential consolidation of the village and town seems pretty clear cut. However, Sherow said that he’d like to see what the consolidation group comes up with before he endorses one form of unified government over the other.
“On a personal level, I feel good about it,” he said. “It’s just a sound decision.”
Whether or not he gets elected, Sherow said that he and the One New Paltz Party have started a big ball rolling by bringing consolidation to the forefront. “This election may be an early referendum on that subject.”
“I’m not adverse to a co-terminus government,” he said, adding that the village would have to find what works best. “That whole study is in progress. It needs to be encouraged and moved on. Everything seems to be stagnant.”
In terms of the noise ordinance, the single father and counselor said he had some problems with how the proposed law is drafted.
“I’m in favor of the idea. I’m not in favor of it as it is currently written,” he said. Sherow added that the village’s noise ordinance should be fine-tuned based on what the public is saying. Also, he thinks the law should get more feedback from the public.
Specifically, Sherow did not like the idea that a landlord could be charged for their tenant’s offenses.
For the newcomer, the answer to the troubles at the Fire Department seems pretty simple -- just support the volunteer firefighters.
“Those poor people,” Sherow said. “For what they do, they deserve so much better than what they’ve gotten.”
Sherow said he’d like to see the New Paltz Fire Department get a lot more respect. “We need to support them with all the muster we can manage,” he said.
Incumbent, lawyer face off for two-year seat
Outside of the run for mayor, and the slew of people running for four-year Village Board seats, two people have thrown their hat into the ring to win a two-year term on the board.
Shari Osborn, an incumbent, and Stewart Glenn both would like that shorter time on the board, and both of them have pretty different reasons why they want to serve only half as long as the rest of the people running for the Village Board.
Shari Osborn
Shari Osborn, a mother of five, grew up in the Hudson Valley and first purchased a house in New Paltz in 2001. She is a substitute teacher for the New Paltz Central School District.
Osborn’s one foray into being an elected official came four years ago when she ran to become a Village Board member. However, she has also served on the board of the Orange County Democrats, New Paltz Democrats and the village’s Shade Tree Commission.
“I am best known before serving as a village trustee for my work creating the Lenape school playground and the Moriello Park playground,” she said. “In both cases, I conceived of and spearheaded the projects -- one completed with only five people (Lenape) and the other with only two, myself and one other (Moriello).”
Part of why she’s running is that Osborn feels like there’s still work left to be done on some of the projects she started in her time on the board. Specifically, she’d like to see the consolidation study deliver its final report, the noise ordinance sorted out and adopted and the village tree survey completed.
“The projects I am currently involved with are not completed, and some are less than six months old, and I believe in finishing what I start,” she said. “I believe in two more years much can be accomplished working at the pace that I do.”
Osborn had at one point before the election contemplated not running for re-election. “The members of the constituent groups I work with have asked me to seek re-election, and out of respect for the projects we are involved with, I agreed to try for another seat.”
While she’s associated with mayoral candidate Jean Gallucci, with whom she went out campaigning and petitioning door to door in the past few weeks, technically Osborn is running alone on the Community Connection Party.
In terms of consolidation, Osborn said she had strong feelings about the potential change, but not enough information, and she wanted to wait and see what the final product of the study would find.
“I caution every single citizen in the village and the town to wait until the final report before throwing support behind any one scenario,” she said. “The study is not complete and Peter Fairweather and Tim Weideman have much more work to accomplish.”
Osborn took a hard-line stance against people who would push forward with consolidation without thinking through the consequences.
“While the early nay-saying is regrettable, the most unfortunate fact is that the rhetoric of the diehard ‘consolidationists’ is dangerous because their message is so biased and their facts slanted in favor of what they want to believe,” she said. “Frankly, they could not have any facts -- the study is incomplete.”
In terms of the proposed noise ordinance, Osborn would have liked the process to have had a more diverse group of law writers.
Only later did the Village Board member find out that no landlords, students or SUNY New Paltz officials were involved in writing the law. “I consider all these groups critical,” she said.
Osborn added: “This may seem like a small point to some, but the idea that my local government would try to legislate how respectful and responsible I am -- or my children are -- seems both unreasonably harsh and strikingly undemocratic.”
She’d like to see the law come back to the idea of a nuisance clause included in a future revision.
In terms of the Fire Department, Osborn has a much more nuanced stance than anyone else running for a trustee’s seat.
“The fire department is a division of the village. Firefighters risk their lives to save lives and property,” she said. Osborn admitted that personality conflicts with the leadership of the Fire Department had played a role in the breakdown of communication. The fire chief at the time had made a request for more than $1 million.
“We simply do not have the financial resources to fund the department with a million-plus dollars,” she said.
Stewart Glenn
While he might be known in town as the man who owns the bus station building on Main Street, Stewart Glenn is a real estate lawyer who works in Newburgh.
“I’ve been practicing for 36 years,” he said.
Glenn has lived in New Paltz or the area for most of his life. As a kid, he moved to New Paltz in the late 1940s and grew up here.
“It’s a little bit different than when I grew up,” Glenn joked.
Although he has not run for elected office, Glenn has a served on a lot of boards in New Paltz. “I’ve always had an interest in municipal government,” he said.
At one point, he also served as the attorney for the City of Newburgh’s Industrial Development Agency and served on the City of Newburgh’s Zoning Board of Appeals for 14 years.
Glenn said he decided to run for the Village Board because of a big lack of communication between the village and many of their local partners.
“There seems to be some dysfunction in the local government,” he said. “So I was really frustrated by that.”
Sitting on the sidelines when so much seemed to be going wrong didn’t strike him as the right thing to do.
“In these tough economic times, we really need to be thinking outside the box,” he said. “Rather than just be a complainer, I thought I’d do something about it.”
When asked why he decided to run for the short term, Glenn said that he hopes to create a situation where he no longer needs to govern.
“I guess the prime reason I decided that was because I’m really in favor of the government efficiency study,” he said.
Glenn added that he hopes there will be a completely new New Paltz government in the very near future -- a unified town and village. “Hopefully, within that time period that has been achieved.”
Glenn said that as a new candidate, he would bring his levelheaded personality and his years of experience to the table. “I’m very interested in the job. I’m an honest person, and I don’t really have a hidden agenda.”
He said he’d like the New Paltz Village Board to operate with total transparency, allowing the public to have a real chance to interact with the government and speak their minds.
As a member of the One New Paltz slate, Glenn is an advocate of looking very thoroughly into the prospect of joining the New Paltz governments into one.
“I think that there’s amazing potential,” he said, but adding that he’d like to see the study completed first.
One benefit of consolidation that Glenn pointed to was the potential to remove a layer of frustration that exists within the sibling rivalry of the dual-government system. “It’ll stop the fighting between the town and the village.”
Consolidation opens up a lot of possibilities in sharing services that are now duplicated between the town and village. “We should be treating ourselves as one community,” he said. “I’m very confident that consolidation can go forward.”
Also Gov. Andrew Cuomo is in favor of consolidation, “and perhaps there’s funding available.” Glenn said he feared what would happen if the state just came in and mandated that communities like New Paltz consolidate.
In terms of the noise ordinance, Glenn said that he thought some of the provisions could be changed or tweaked. But that’s not to say the Village of New Paltz shouldn’t have some protections in place.
“I think we probably do need a noise ordinance,” Glenn said.
Glenn said he thought the Village Board could do well to improve the relationship with the Fire Department.
“I grew up here and the volunteer Fire Department was always a big part of the community,” Glenn said. “For whatever reason, it hasn’t been handled properly.”
The lawyer said that he thought the existing system could work if the Fire Department is treated with respect.
“There may be things they want that we can’t afford,” he said. “But that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t treat them like a priority.”
When and where to vote
The New Paltz Village Board election will take place on Tuesday, May 3. Voting will be held from noon to 9 p.m. at the New Paltz Firehouse.
-- Mike Townshend
Guidelines for campaign videos on Channel 23
Last week, the joint Town/Village Public Access Committee updated the policies governing candidate promotional videos for broadcast on cable Channel 23. The goal was to insure fairness and equal time, and to allow the large number of candidates the opportunity to be seen during prime viewing time.
Broadcast guidelines for campaign videos on New Paltz Channel 23:
• All attempts will be made to air videos regarding individual candidates in a fair and balanced manner, for an equivalent amount of time, in the order in which they are received.
• Broadcast times will be Friday and Sunday evenings and Sunday afternoons for one month preceding the election.
• Videos shall be in DVD format and shall be less than 20 minutes long
• Videographers should be familiar with the Channel 23 Program Policies for Political Use of Channel 23 (available on the town and village websites) and sign program agreement and channel time request forms, both available at Town Hall.
• Candidate debates and forums sponsored by neutral parties are not subject to these guidelines.
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for the school board?
Petitions for New Paltz School Board candidates are due in the office of the District Clerk by Monday, April 18 at 5 p.m. Candidates must submit petitions which contain a total of at least 47 valid signatures. The terms of board members Patrick Rausch and Steve Greenfield will end on June 30. Nominating petitions for potential candidates can be found at http://www.newpaltz.k12.ny.us/newpaltz/lib/newpaltz/_shared/NominatingPetitionsPacket2011.pdf, or call 256-4031 for further information.
Petitions for Highland School Board candidates are also due in the office of the Highland District Clerk by April 18 at 5 p.m. Candidates must provide a petition containing the signatures of 29 eligible Highland School District voters. The terms of board members Al Barone and Jim Kokoszynski end on June 30; the temporary appointment of board member Maria Peterson ends on May 17, election night. The candidate elected to the one-year term will follow Peterson in completing the final third of a three-year term vacated by Mike Serini in 2010. The two candidates winning three-year terms will be sworn in at the board’s first regularly scheduled meeting in July. For more information, call 235-0842 or e-mail KBerta@highland-k12.org.
Ulster BOCES will be sponsoring a free workshop for prospective school board members as a community service. The event will take place on April 14 at 6:30 p.m. in the Ulster BOCES Conference Room at Route 32 North in New Paltz.
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