3 people vie for 2 seats on Town Board
Three people are running for two seats on the Esopus Town Board.
The candidates are James Banks, of 1564 Route 213, Port Ewen; Evelyn Clarke, of 170 Doris St., Port Ewen; incumbent Jared Geuss, of 248 Green St. Ulster Park.
The top two vote-getters will serve four-year terms starting Jan. 1, 2020.
Incumbent Gloria VanVliet, whose term is up this year, is not seeking re-election.
James Banks
Banks, 55, will be on the
Republican and Conservative lines on the ballot.
He is a lifelong resident of the town, and is married with two children.
Banks ran unsuccessfully for a Town Board seat in 2017.
“We have a big comprehensive plan going on. It’s all-consuming; it’s just so broad,” he said. “We’re doing work at the Water Department with the drainage culverts, trying to bring business into the area ... and I’m looking forward to working with everybody if elected.”
Banks is a member of the town Zoning Board of Appeals, Board of Assessment Review and Waterfront Advisory
Board.
Evelyn Clarke
Clarke, 69, will be on the Democratic, Green and Working Families lines on the ballot.
She has lived in the town since 1988 and is married. She is a voice-over artist and a retired IT specialist for IBM.
Clarke ran unsuccessfully for town tax collector in 2011.
Clarke said the town should work to establish programs to deal with the opioid crisis, calling it “not something that we can ignore.”
“We have been working with the Sheriff’s [Office] to make sure that we set up a time or schedule where our seniors can bring their prescription drugs for disposal,” she said.
Clarke said she also is concerned about how tenants are treated at the Lakeshore Villas apartment complex.
“We have the issue with
[owners] E&M,” she said. “I’ve been at a few Town Board meetings where they’ve come to speak. I do know that there are some people who are concerned with the high rent, the way rents are being raised, and I do know that is something that the Town Board is going to have to address.”
Clarke is on the Family of Woodstock board, the advisory board for the Restorative Justice and Community Empowerment Center, and is an associate minister at New Progressive Baptist
Church in Kingston.
Jared Geuss
Geuss, 36, is will be on the Democratic, Republican, Conservative and Independence lines on the ballot.
He was appointed to fill a vacancy on the Town Board in late 2016 and was elected to the final two years of that term in November 2017.
Geuss has lived in Esopus since 1989. He is married with two children, and is a foreman for the New York State Bridge Authority.
“We need development to come in and offset our tax base, but we need a good
balance of development between businesses that provide services and goods to the community that will be sustainable throughout many years,” Geuss said.
He said new businesses should “enhance or tag onto a lot of the natural beauty that we already have .... ”
Uncontested races
• Town Supervisor Shannon Harris, 43, of 123 River Road, Ulster Park, is running for a second two-year term. She’ll be on the Democratic, Green, Working Families and Independence lines on the ballot.
• Highway Superintendent Michael Cafaldo, 67, of
37 Main St., Esopus, is seeking a fifth two-year term. He’ll be on the Democratic and Independence lines.
• Running for two fouryear terms as town justice are Kyle Barnett, of 590 Swartekill Road, on the Republican, Conservative and Independence lines; and Peter Matera, of 2165 Broadway, West Park, on the Republican and Conservative lines. Barnett is a town supervisor and councilman. Neither candidate is an incumbent.
• Tax Collector Bernice McNeirney, of 149 E. Main St., Port Ewen, is seeking a 14th two-year term on the Republican, Conservative and Independence lines.