“I want to continue with what I’ve been doing, and that’s to serve the community,” she said. “I want to bring a voice to the community to help it grow and prosper, not for just one group but for everyone.”
She added that she wants to bring bipartisanship to the Town Board, which has become a more contentious body recently. Block also spoke about economic development.
“Tourism in Ulster County is a $454 million industry and I want Saugerties to continue to tap into that,” she said.
While tourism is important, it won’t be her only concern.
“It’s nice that we assist new businesses to come into town, but it’s even more important that we help our existing businesses to grow so they will hire more workers,” Block said. “How can we give huge tax breaks for new businesses when we are doing nothing for businesses that have been here?”
Supervisor
Greg Helsmoortel is the presumptive party nominee, because as of yet no other Democrat has expressed an interest in running.
Helsmoortel was supervisor for 12 years before being unseated by Republican incumbent Kelly Myers. Now he wants back in.
“I really enjoyed what I was doing,” he said. “And now I want to finish what I started.”
He said economic development is a big issue for Saugerties, and he played a role in encouraging it in the past by bringing water and sewer to Kings Highway, making many of the sites “shovel ready” for development.
Helsmoortel said he’d work on getting Ulster County to take over elections and social services costs. Every other county in the state pays for the Safety Net program, while Ulster County bills individual towns for their residents.
As far as election costs, “the town has zero control over election costs, and that needs to be changed,” Helsmoortel said.
Town justice
Attorney Lanny Walter, a longtime Democratic committeeman, and an active member of the anti-casino group, predicts it will be a “tough fight” against Dan Lamb, who has been the town justice for more than 20 years.
“I will need help putting up signs, raising money, and writing letters and brochures for the public,” he said.
“My hope is to win; to try and win,” Walter said. “This is a good time for a fresh set of eyes as town justice. In many ways the election will be a popularity contest, and I’m popular with some people, and not popular with some others.”
Highway superintendent
So far this year, the most interesting political development has been the GOP’s decision to nominate contractor Ray Mayone over incumbent Doug Myer for highway superintendent — this despite Myer’s endorsement by the union and budget management that tripled the department’s fund balance.
Apparently, no one saw it coming. Republican Town Board member James Bruno and Supervisor Kelly Myers both said it took them by surprise. Myers and Myer ran as a team in the campaign two years ago, and Myers thought they made a good team then, and would make a good team again.
At the GOP caucus, when asked what was behind the Ray Mayone victory, many just shrugged their shoulders and said, “it’s Saugerties politics.” One explained that if you observe the process in Saugerties long enough, “you’ll have seen it all.” (Mayone himself attributed his win to lots of “satisfied customers” from his 30-plus years in business. Providing horse-drawn carriage rides each December probably hasn’t hurt either.)
Myer told the Democrats that he believes he didn’t get the Republican nomination “because I wouldn’t join the good old boys’ club and do personal favors for them.”
Myer said he’s most proud of “making great strides with the highways last year.”
“I was also able to put $600,000 into the fund balance at the end of last year,” Myer said, and this year, “I have gotten $129,000 from sources outside the town budget to help pay for road improvements.”
Myer added that he has received more FEMA money for the Sack’s Lodge Road Bridge replacement, which should happen this year.
“On all the FEMA projects from the storms I have been $1.4 million under budget,” he said.
Later, in a letter to the editor, Mayone said he’d also be seeking the support of the Democrats at the caucus.
Town clerk and receiver of taxes
Democrats will be cross-endorsing Lisa Stanley and Suzi Filak respectively unless a Democrat steps forward at the caucus.
The caucus will be held Tuesday, July 9 at 7 p.m. at the Senior Center, corner of Market and Robinson streets. Registered Democrats may vote.
Well, I think it’s really great that all the development is happening down Kings Highway and Mt. Marion will be getting natural gas lines, and it’s wonderful that some folks have expanded access to municipal water and sewer, but there’s a few of us on Osnas Lane who would just like the Town Board to step up and recognize their responsibility and fix this 45 year old drainage problem they’ve been ignoring all these years. Seems there’s all kinds of funds to run gas lines and high speed internet and expand access to water and sewer etc, but there just aren’t enough voters on Timberlake Circle to try to do something about our flooding.