Amenia candidates field voters’ questions

AMENIA —  In a two-hour forum sponsored by TriCorner News and moderated by the League of Women Voters, five candidates for seats on Amenia’s Town Board met Wednesday, Oct. 11, in the auditorium of Webutuck High School with about 80 constituents and voters. 

Introduced by John Coston, editor-in-chief of The Millerton News, the three candidates vying for the two seats on the Amenia Town Board were incumbent Vicki Doyle, Rosanna Hamm and Paul Winters. This is a four-year term.

Doyle, a Democrat, is senior development associate at the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies. She has served on the board since 2004.

Winters is chairman of the Amenia Recreation Commission, and is a Republican candidate on the Common Ground line. He has been involved with the Wastewater Committee and the Recreation Commission for several years.

Hamm is a retired teacher, a Democrat who knows Amenia well, having taught a great many of its current citizens at the Webutuck Central School District; in fact, she is a 1969 graduate of Webutuck High School.

The seat of town supervisor, a two-year term, is also open, and there are two candidates for the position, one being current Town Supervisor Victoria Perotti, a Republican/Independent who began her career with the board in 2004 as a member, and was re-elected in 2009. She served as deputy supervisor from 2010 to 2013, and was elected town supervisor in 2013, a position she has held ever since.

Democrat Leo Blackman has served on the board since 2022. He was active in town affairs prior to becoming a board member, serving on the Amenia Enhancement Committee, the Planning Board, the Zoning Board, the Housing Board and the Wastewater Committee.

Moderator Jolanda Jensen received questions for the candidates from the audience via Kevin Gardiner, and the responses were timed by Sheba Abrahaim. All three are members of the League of Women Voters Mid-Hudson Region.

Questions were divided into those for the candidates for supervisor into for candidates for board member. Some of the questions were the same for both, including one about being for or against term limits. Answers varied: Hamm noted that if people felt someone was in one position for too long, they should step up, say something or run themselves. She doesn’t believe in term limits, but does think more people need to step up and be involved.

Doyle believes the most important factor is not throwing someone out arbitrarily if someone is doing a good job and the voters make that decision when they vote. Blackman was largely noncommittal on this. Winters said yes, but added that he thinks the supervisor’s post should be more than two years, and he wasn’t in favor of very short terms, with board terms for four to 20 years and supervisor maybe eight to 12 years.

Blackman has said one of the reasons he is running is to bring more transparency to the office. Out of 15 questions asked of the supervisory candidates, five of them dealt with the issue of transparency. There were also 15 questions asked of board member candidates, and two of those wanted more transparency.

When the candidates were asked why they were running, their answers were similar in some cases, with slight variations. Blackman noted the need for transparency; he’d like other meetings, such as that of the Planning Board, televised. He’d like more respect paid to the volunteers on boards and committees who give so much of their time to the town and stated the position of supervisor is a full-time position. Blackman is a retired architect.

Perotti would like to finish some of the projects she has started, and she noted that things don’t happen overnight. She also noted that in many instances, there are no shortcuts; the correct avenues have to be followed. Perotti mentioned the need to build relationships and contacts, that people have to work together to get the work done.

The candidates for the board also had definite ideas about the requirements. Hamm would like to see better communications, with more televised meetings and better use of media, a digital sign in front of Town Hall and maybe emailing agendas for Planning Board and other meetings.

She’d also like to see more services provided, making sure that those moving into the town are being reached out to. She added that she was not going to make great assurances because one never knows what might happen,  but would work hard and honestly to do her best to build a community where everyone helps each other.

Doyle also wants to complete unfinished business; she too noted that many projects take hard work and a long time to get off the ground. She mentioned in particular the free electric-vehicle charging station for residents, for which she advocated. She mentioned her expertise as a fundraiser, something she loves doing and finds invaluable when searching for grant money and funding. She also noted that Amenia has moved forward with climate resiliency: “We are in the process of obtaining grants through the CAC and the task force and hope to complete an energy audit of Town Hall before the end of the year.”

Winters said he’d only been involved in politics for about two years, becoming involved because of the amount of animosity he felt when looking into situations concerning the wastewater and drinking water projects, and the amount of money being spent. He feels that plans for the future of the town are stuck and new ideas are needed, along with proper bylaws and lots of change.