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Six candidates vying for 3 open Town Board seats

Hudson-Catskill Newspapers

ANCRAM

Madeleine Israel

Passing the Comprehensive Plan is the most important task that will face the new Town Board, Madeleine Israel told the Register-Star editorial board in a recent interview. She’s one of two contestants in November’s election for a three-year term on the Town Board.

While the town garage really needs work, she said, that pales in comparison to the Comprehensive Plan, which is about what the town will be like 20 years from now.

“The only way it will stay the way it is, is if we can attract business,” she said, “and develop the town centers.”

The hamlet of Ancram has a “bunch of falling-down buildings and an abominable intersection” with bad sight lines, Israel said.

“The Comprehensive Plan will address these things and allow us to get the grants needed to develop the town center,” she said. “The state Department of Transportation will look at the intersection if it’s identified as an important issue in the plan.”

She would like to see a gas station, a grocery store, a delicatessen/coffee shop, and the hamlets, she said, would be the perfect place for affordable housing.

Israel’s family had a summer home in Ancram when she was growing up.

“I would like to see Ancram be the place I knew as a child,” she said.

But she knows that change is on its way.

“Development will come,” she said. “We’ve been lucky; but there are huge farms for sale.” She cited Long Lake Development, with its cluster housing, its contribution to the tax base and non-reliance on municipal services, as the kind of development that should be encouraged.

She’s a supporter of the Scenic Overlay District, which protects the viewshed and ridgeline on Route 22.

“It’s a beautiful piece of roadway,” Israel said. “I wouldn’t want to see a Wal-Mart there. The Scenic Overlay doesn’t restrict business; it just moderates it.”

The town has “more home-based businesses than anybody is aware,” she said.

Israel said she’d like to see a change in the way town meetings are conducted.

“I’d like to see orderly meetings where everyone has a chance to get up and say what they want to say. I’m anxious to collaborate as opposed to contend. All my work experience is people-oriented. I’d like to bring us all together.”

She added that she’s not interested in undermining Supervisor Tom Dias. “Tom’s success is Ancram’s success,” she said.

A sign in a local store read “Grow, buy, vote local,” Israel said, then listed every board candidate’s name but hers.

“Anybody who pays taxes here has a right to express their opinions and not be booed down at public meetings,” she said.

Israel taught English for years in the New York City public school system. Her parents moved here full-time in the 1970s. In 1992, she and her husband, Paul moved to Ancram, and she went to work as a fundraiser for Camp Hill Village in Copake, a position she still holds. Paul Israel died in 2003.

For the past two years, Madeleine Israel has served on the Planning Board, and for nearly a year, she has been vice-chairwoman of the town Democratic Committee.

She has two grown children, one in California and the other in Mahopac, Putnam County.

James Miller

James P. Miller has shown he’s the kind of person who can change his position. The 52-year-old Ancramdale dairy farmer is one of two candidates for a three-year spot on the Town Board.

Miller said he had a skeptical view of the Comprehensive Plan, but after he took an interest in it, he decided it was an important project.

“We’re pretty dilapidated,” he said. “We need new business.”

He said a convenience store or a gas station on Route 82 would be a plus. And he would like to see the business district in the hamlet of Ancram expanded.

As it is, the Comprehensive Plan is flying under the radar, Miller said, and he encouraged the Comprehensive Plan Committee to do more to publicize it, preferably through a newsletter, since “not everyone has a computer.”

“I think the goals of the plan are OK,” he wrote in a candidate statement, “that is, to create affordable housing, protecting farmland and stimulating business. The methods we use to achieve them are what we must be careful about.

“I do not believe you can attract business or create affordable housing by imposing burdensome rules and regulations on applicants,” Miller stated. “Delaying projects only adds to the cost of any project. Applicants are forced to hire lawyers, and the only ones who benefit are the lawyers.”

He cited the Scenic Overlay Zone on Route 22 as an example of a “burdensome regulation.”

“That’s the one true business district we have, and they’ve made it doubly hard to site a business there,” Miller said.

Meanwhile, unnecessary expenditures must be cut from the budget to lower taxes, he said.

“We must identify the ‘must haves’ from the ‘nice to haves,’” he said, with items such as Highway Department and Fire Department equipment falling into the “must have” category.

Miller said the $1.1 million highway garage that is under consideration “makes sense.” But he said he would be willing to look at other, cost-effective proposals.

A lifelong county resident, Miller graduated from Pine Plains High School. He’s a member of the Ancram Fire Company, the Eastern New York Holstein Club, the Hudson Valley Old Time Power Association and the Western Massachusetts Tractor Pullers.

He and his wife Janice have two children, Erin, 25, and Leah, 17, and two grandchildren.

Donna Hoyt

Donna Hoyt recently opened the letter from her assessor to see the assessment on her house had jumped from $160,000 to $529,000; after grieving, it was still $390,000.

Looking around, she noticed that other folks were also upset, if not grieving, about the assessments that resulted from the town-wide revaluation. So she decided to run for one of the two one-year terms on the Town Board.

“Our whole tax system has to be looked at,” Hoyt said. “It’s not a level playing field. Some people are overassessed, some are underassessed.”

Since the assessor answers to the board, one of her priorities would be to look at what’s going on in that area.

“I’m in a position I can put time into it,” she said. All her three children have graduated from college; she and her husband operate the Ancram Hotel, which they purchased from her mother. That puts Hoyt right at the center of what she, and others, see as a pressing need, the revitalization of the hamlet of Ancram.

“We’re the only business in town, now that the tavern is closed,” she said. “We own one of the few commercial properties.”

What’s wrong with the hamlet?

At the intersection of Routes 82 and 7, “you take your life in your hands,” she said. But who, besides passers through, would need to? All the buildings in the hamlet are empty.

Septic problems have always plagued that area as well, she said.

But the empty buildings, she said, present “the perfect opportunity” to remake the hamlet.

Hoyt is looking to the Comprehensive Plan to change the zoning to allow for growth. She’d like to see a gas station — the nearest one is eight miles away — and a grocery store.

“We’re not asking for the world,” she said. “We need commerce.”

The controversial town garage proposal should not be a major issue, Hoyt said. The committee did what it was tasked with, finding the best possible spot, she said. The members are all professionals. But the issue is still open.

“There are now other things available that haven’t been looked into yet,” she said. “We don’t even have an appraisal of the Matthews property yet.”

Another important topic on Hoyt’s mind is affordable housing.

“My children can’t afford to live here,” she said. She would like to see mobile home parks in Ancram, which she said are “good for seniors and young people.” This, she said, would address both economic development and family issues.

Hoyt moved to Ancram with her family, the DiCaprios, when she was five years old. Her parents owned the Ancram Hotel for 32 years before selling it to her. For 30 years, she had a beauty parlor.

Bob Mayhew

Democrat Bob Mayhew is running for one of the two one-year terms on the Town Board because, he said, “the town needs help.”

Poor communications, skyrocketing assessments and a need for town-wide planning are the areas he would direct his energies toward, he told the Register-Star Oct. 15.

Mayhew said communication between the Town Board and citizens is poor, so he’s working on a newsletter that could go out to everyone in town.

“A lot of people don’t have Internet,” he said. “We’re trying to get each department in town to give input.” All candidates in the race agree this is a priority, he said.

Mayhew is also anxious to address the town’s recent “drive-by” revaluation.

“No one knew we were being reassessed,” he said. “They drove by and took pictures.”

His assessment shot up from $40,000 to $440,000.

“I’m one of many,” he said. “We’re the second-highest assessed town in Columbia County.”

The Comprehensive Plan, that will also need to be dealt with by the incoming Town Board, is very important, Mayhew said. It covers “town centers, roads, everything,” he said.

“There are a lot of hard decisions to make. You can’t please everyone.”

One focus of the plan will be the revitalization of the hamlet of Ancram and its dangerous intersection at Routes 82 and 7.

“The old buildings should be removed or revitalized, though most of the timbers are so rotted you can’t (restore them),” he said. “This is a good opportunity to get the state to help us revitalize that intersection.”

Mayhew is a member of the committee that found a controversial location for the town highway garage on the Matthews Property on Roche Lane.

“We need a new town garage,” he said. The present one is not big enough, not sanitary, its doors aren’t big enough and there’s not enough land, he said.

After examining 10 properties, the committee decided the Matthews parcel was the most feasible. The purchase and work could be done for $1.1 million, he said.

“You couldn’t come up with a better parcel,” he said. “This is what we [the committee] do for a living. The man built it to commercial specs.” He said he’s open to suggestions from Michael Citrin, who is looking into alternative locations.

Mayhew is not a fan of the Scenic Overlay District, which protects the Route 22 viewshed and has been in effect for several years.

The district limits the town’s ability to add to its tax base, he said, noting that a gravel mine couldn’t be sited in a certain location because of restrictions.

Mayhew graduated from Stissing Mountain High School, Pine Plains, and the Dutchess County BOCES Carpentry Program in 1978. He served in the U.S. Army from 1978 to 1984. Since 1984, Mayhew has been a partner with his brother in MM Construction Co.

Dennis Sigler

Dennis Sigler, 58, has spent more than half his life in service to the town of Ancram, including 30 years on the Planning Board and 25 as the treasurer for the Fire District. A Republican, he’s putting his hat in the electoral ring for the first time, as one of four candidates for two single-year terms on the Town Board.

Sigler told the Register-Star Oct. 15 he sees a trail of missed opportunities through Ancram due to the holes in its zoning. The successful American Bio Medica Corp. started in Ancram, Sigler said, but has since moved to Stuyvesant; Morgan Motors of New England “tried to site itself in Ancram, but got disgusted and moved,” he said.

“We don’t really want large businesses, but we do want jobs,” Sigler said. “I’m not sure how big the community feels we can go. We could use a nice restaurant.”

The Schweitzer-Mauduit paper mill, one of Columbia County’s largest employers, located on the Roeliff-Jansen Kill in Ancram hamlet, is boxed in by the landscape so it can’t get any bigger, Sigler said, meaning it may not always be there.

He hopes the Comprehensive Plan can help the town repair its zoning “in a way that is fair to all, while allowing the town to grow in the directions we all want.”

“You can’t have businesses in Ancram because everything’s zoned so there’s no place to put them,” he said, suggesting that a floating business district around the hamlet might be a solution.

Another big issue is the proposed town garage, which the town-appointed committee recommended be sited at the Matthews property on Roche Lane. The present garage, he said, is an old milk factory with dirt floors under which lies the septic system.

“There’s no place for a salt shed,” he said. “We need to do something; it’s just what can we do in the cheapest manner. The Matthews property meets some of the criteria: The building is there, and it’s probably cost-effective. I’d rather see it on a main road.” He said he wants to see more options explored.

Assessments have become a hot issue in town, especially following the recent town-wide revaluation.

“I’m sure there are inequalities in the way they did it,” Sigler said. “People are really upset about their new assessments; they went up a lot.” He said the revaluation should be looked at to make sure it was done fairly, with equal properties assessed equally.

In addition to a Comprehensive Plan, the town also has a Scenic Overlay District, which has been in effect for several years, and is meant to protect the ridgeline and viewshed on Route 22.

“It’s a good idea, but I don’t think it’s going to work,” Sigler said. One thing the district does is prohibit any business, including its parking lot, from disturbing more than 30 percent of a parcel, he said, but it places no such restriction on houses.

“It doesn’t restrict turning it into all houses,” he said. “Twenty-two is a major corridor; that 30 percent will discourage businesses.”

The district “needs to be looked at and improved so it does what people want it to do,” Sigler said.

A graduate of RoeJan Central School and SUNY Cobleskill, with high honors, Sigler operates Dencinjo Farm on Hall Hill Road. He has been the town representative to the county Environmental Management Council, is a member of Agri-Mark, Columbia County Cooperative Extension and the Farm Bureau.

He has served as treasurer for St. John’s Lutheran Church in Ancram, the Lutheran Parish of Southern Columbia County and the Ancram Fire District.

Chris Thomas

Fed up with Copake’s way of doing business, Chris Thomas and his family moved to Ancram about six years ago. Thomas is one of four candidates for two one-year terms on the Town Board, and he’d like to see Ancram avoid the mistakes he said Copake made.

The town government “changed the whole shape of Copake,” he said. “The hamlet is in a shambles now. There aren’t the thriving businesses there used to be.”

Born in Hudson, Thomas, 40, was raised in West Copake.

“I complained about Harold Higgins and was thrown out of Town Hall,” he said. “Later you find out Higgins was the problem. We couldn’t afford to live there.”

Higgins was a Copake town assessor from 2000 to 2005, and was charged by the state Attorney General’s Office in 2006 with falsifying business records, insurance fraud, and fraudulently receiving workman’s compensation benefits in excess of $100,000. As part of a plea agreement, he pleaded guilty to a felony of fraudulent business practices.

Thomas sees a lot of issues that have the possibility of changing the way Ancram is.

The proposal for a new town garage could increase taxes, he said.

“We need a solution to the present situation,” Thomas said. “I’m not sure the current proposal is the best and optimal choice. There’s an individual [Michael Citrin] doing his own study; there’s talk about a committee reforming. Some alternatives have to be brought before the board: It’s a big decision.”

Another vital issue is the Comprehensive Plan.

“New zoning regulations will shape the way the town is in the future,” he said. “How farmland is used, affordable housing, how the hamlets are used. I’d like to see something the whole town could rally behind.”

He said he expects the Comprehensive Plan to come up with ideas for utilizing the hamlet. Attracting businesses is an important concern, but “it’s going to be tough,” he said.

As an employee of an oil company himself, he said he doesn’t believe there’s enough traffic through the hamlet for a gas station.

Thomas was a member of the Board of Assessment Review this year.

“We had a huge turnout for Grievance Day,” he said. “There were a lot of unhappy people.

Keeping the tax burden as low as possible, without cutting the level of services now provided, tops his list of priorities for the next Town Board.

Also on that list are bringing the town garage situation to a conclusion and working toward a decision on the Comprehensive Plan.

Thomas is the operating manager for a fuel distributorship in Westchester County.

He and his wife, Ruth, have four children attending Taconic Hills schools.

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