Incumbent faces challenge in Plattekill
KINGSTON, N.Y. » Political newcomer Glenn Geher will take on incumbent Kevin Roberts in the race for the Ulster County Legislature’s District 12 seat.
Roberts, 55, is running for a sixth two-year term.
A Republican who also will hold the Conservative, Independence and Green party lines on the Nov. 7 ballot, Roberts said that if he’s re-elected, he’ll continue to fight against wasteful and unnecessary government spending.
Roberts said that, as a county lawmaker, he has been able to obtain three grants for fire departments in his district. He said he would continue to fight to ensure firefighters have the training they need.
Roberts also said he would encourage “smart growth” in the county and opposes overgrowth on the main corridors in his district, which comprises part of the town of Plattekill. He said he “will fight every effort to turn Route 32 in Plattekill into another Route 300 in Newburgh.”
Geher, 47, is a registered Democrat who also will appear on the Working Families, Women’s Equality and People for Plattekill lines on the ballot.
If elected, Geher said, he will try to attract tourism to the town of Plattekill, which he said was designated as an economically distressed municipality in 2015 and often is overlooked as a tourism destination.
Noting that Plattekill once was known as home of the “Spanish Alps,” Geher said he would focus his efforts as a legislator on bringing the community into its “next Golden Age.”
Part of that effort, he said, is to ensure Plattekill is wellrepresented in the Legislature. As a professor and program director at SUNY New Paltz, Geher said he has more than a 99 percent attendance record and vowed to bring that same work ethic to the Legislature.
A resident of Ulster County for 18 years, Geher holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Connecticut and a Ph.D. from the University of New Hampshire.
He is vice president of the Friends of the Plattekill Public Library, a founding president of the North-Eastern Evolutionary Psychology Society, a member of the Heterodox Academy, a member of Academics for Academic Freedom and founding co-director of the International Evolutionary Studies Consortium.
He and his wife, Kathleen, have two children who attend New Paltz High School.
Roberts has lived in Ulster County for 25 years and is the owner of Roberts Contracting Inc.
He is a 1979 graduate of Marlboro High School and is chairman of the Ulster County Resource Recovery Agency Board of Directors.
As a county lawmaker, he is chairman of Legislature’s Laws and Rules, Governmental Services Committee and a member of the Public Health and Social Services Committee.
He and his wife Melanie have two children who attend the Mount Pleasant Blythesdale Faith Christian Academy.