Fight for the right

Town Board: seeking a majority

Myers’s opponents for the nomination may take issue with her management style and level of dedication to certain issues, but it would be best not to forget that in the end, she’s just one vote. And with Jimmy Bruno, she’s been on the losing side of some 3-2 votes Saugerties Republicans would like to do-over. They’ll get their chance if they can hold onto Bruno’s seat (with or without Jimmy) and defeat Democratic Councilman Bruce Leighton. Three candidates are seeking two nominations.

We’ll start with Santos Lopez, who represents a new constituency in Saugerties. While Bruno and William Schirmer were born and raised in Saugerties, and all the supervisor candidates are longtime residents either born here or the next town over, Lopez was born in the Philippines. When the topic of economic development comes up, most everyone else talks about developing industrial areas on the town’s edges and helping shops in the village. Lopez talks about encouraging middle- and upper-middle class professionals who work in Albany and New York City to settle in Saugerties. It’s the best place to raise a family, he reasons, thanks to its small-town feel and community spirit, and the surroundings are beautiful. Distance for commuters is becoming less of an issue because of the growth of working from home, said Lopez. (Indeed, one study shows an explosion in telecommuting, with 20 to 30 million working from home at least one day a week; a 73 percent increase from 2005 and 2011.) These new residents will pay property taxes and spend their money here, benefiting the existing service economy and filling the town’s coffers.

In a way, the thinking is similar to tourism: it allows Saugerties to thrive based on its inherent characteristics. We already have scenic beauty, we’re already a cool town, we just need to spread the word.

Lopez is a marketing consultant. He works mainly out of his home in Barclay Heights, traveling when necessary. It’s easy to see where he got his idea: he’s a cheerful guy who really likes Saugerties, working at home, picking his daughter up from the neighborhood school and stealing away to take a few country road curves on his Ninja 650R when the weather’s nice. Why not help others find this bliss?

He said people he works with who live in the city love it up here, and he thinks many would like to live here. He’d reach out to professionals through business human resource departments (which help employees find a place to live) and realtors. He said he’s built up a rolodex during his years in the business and knows how to make it happen. The project would call for working with the town’s economic development committee as well. “I don’t mind doing that personally,” he said.

The first question any potential new resident with young children asks is, “How are the schools?” So Lopez wants the town government to think about ways to help out the school district. As an example, he mentioned working with corporations. He said other districts have received private grants through companies like Proctor & Gamble, Exxon and BP. “Each group has resources, so we have to collaborate,” he said. “We have to work smarter and we have to work together to get things done.”