4 run for 2 seats on Town Board; 2 seek judgeship
Two incumbents and two first-time candidates are running for two seats on the Olive Town Board.
On the ballot will be incumbent Drew Boggess, of 28 Ralis Road, Shokan; David Edinger, of 400 High Point Mountain Road, West Shokan; incumbent Peter Friedel, of 55 Friedel Road, West Shokan; and David Sorbelli, of 145 Brown Station Road, Olivebridge.
The two top vote-getters will serve four-year terms starting Jan. 1, 2020.
Drew Boggess
Boggess, 70, is seeking second term. He will be on the Democratic line om the ballot.
He have lived in Olive for 25 years, is retired from Ametek Rotron, and is married with two children.
“One of the things we need to do ... is update some of our town codes, particularly zoning,” Boggess said of the town’s priorities. “I’m not talking about doing a complete rewrite. I’m talking about tweaking to bringing it up to today’s standards and issues. Our zoning codes are probably 40 years old or more, and they haven’t been substantially updated.”
Boggess also would like to seek repairs to the town meeting hall on Bostock Road.
“That’s where we have all of our Town Board meetings,” he said. “The police are there, the court is held there, and that building needs some work with air conditioning. We need to make it ADA-compliant, and hopefully we can find some money to do some cosmetic work inside.”
Boggess is a member of the Association of Native Americans of the Hudson Valley, the Onteora school district audit committee and the Ulster County Planning Board.
David Edinger
Edinger, 48, will be on the Democratic line on the ballot.
He has lived in Olive for 21 years, is lead programmer at SUNY Ulster and is married with two children.
“There is a complete disconnect between the town and the populace,” Edinger said. “There is no communication. We don’t have the Olive Press newspaper anymore . ... So I want to make sure we have a direct communication method, twoway, between the town government in general and the town.”
Edinger also said Olive needs “to make sure we take advantage of the [new Ashokan Rail] Trail and the anticipated traffic that’s going to bring. So I want to make sure there is proper access to our businesses in Shokan.”
Edinger is on the boards of the Rondout Soccer Club and Olive Free Library board, and he is a member of the Olive Conservation Advisory Council.
Peter Friedel
Friedel, 56, is seeking a fourth term. He’ll be on the Republican and Conservative Party lines on the ballot.
Friedel is a lifelong resident of Olive, is a sales manager for Kimball Midwest, and is married with two children.
Friedel said his priorities include “getting the town in order for the flooding. We’ve got the Watson Hollow, Bushkill, and then Boiceville ... cleaning out the streams and cleaning out the Watson Hollow bridge so we don’t lose it.”
He said the work has “been going around New York Rising (a state floodmitigation program) ... and they’ve been processing it since the flood of 2011, and they haven’t gotten anywhere. “In Boiceville, we’ve got to work on getting it revitalized. They’re working on getting people moved out of the flood zone and starting a new business district.”
David Sorbelli
Sorbelli, 49, will be on the Republican and Conservative lines on the ballot.
His is a lifelong resident; works as a health care, logistics and governance adviser for UPS; and is married with two children.
“The issue of utmost priority is the rezoning of commercial land in the hamlet ... of Boiceville,” Sorbelli said. “It’s being sold to New York City and rezoned as forever wild. Six lots have been included, which will be taken off the commercial . ...
“There should be a moratorium placed on any additional sales to New York City DEP (Department of Environmental Protection), and we should examine the options in the flood analysis that took place for Boiceville ... and pursuing the DOT’s plans, if any, for Route 28, which is also in the floodplain.”
Sorbelli is a member of the town Planning Board, a coach with Olive Little League and member of the Bennett Elementary School PTA.
••• Also on the Olive ballot will be two candidates running for a four-year term as town justice.
Running to succeed Tanya Davis, who chose not to seek re-election, are Peggy Haug, of 38 Black
Alder Road, Shokan; and Earla VanKleeck of 13 Wilde Wood Road, Boiceville.
Peggy Haug
Haug, 62, will be on the Democratic ballot line.
She has lived in the town since 1982 and has one child.
“I think each individual case that comes before the judicial process needs to be addressed on its own merits,” Haug said. “We need to maintain the level that has been developed in Olive Town Court, the established level of integrity . ... They’ve worked very hard to attain at this point.”
Haug volunteers with My Stuffed Doll.
Earla VanKleeck
VanKleeck, 72, will be on the Republican and Conservative lines on the ballot.
She has lived in Olive for 35 years, is a retired teacher and business owner, and is married with five children.
“My feeling for this position is to be a fair and balanced judge and to treat ... the people who come into come into court [with] no prejudging,” VanKleeck said.
She is a member of the town Police Commission and the Ladies’ Auxiliary of American Legion Post 950.