The Oneida Daily Dispatch (Oneida, NY)
Coulthart’s focus on quality of life
ONEIDA, N.Y. » With a history of helping the local neighborhood, James “Jim” Coulthart wants to take that one step further.
Coulthart, who is running for Ward 3 under the Democratic ticket, had a hand in galvanizing the community when H.P. Hood started expanding.
“I was one of the advocate neighbors in trying to protect Allen Park in the recent expansion of Hood,” Coulthart said. “If you go over there, you’ll see a wall and that’s both an acoustic wall and an aesthetic wall. There was little consideration, in my opinion, given to the impact on the immediate neighborhood. So I helped galvanize Mike Bowe, who was the councilor of the second ward at the time, and Joe Magliocca with the Rail Trail project and bring the potential problems that were not addressed. We collectively got them to put up that wall and put it high enough to help remedy it.”
Coulthart said the concerns at the time were for the park, the safety of the kids and the neighborhood.
Born and raised in Oneida, Coulthart has 40 years worth of experience as a professional executive in youth organization work, business associations, marketing and sales and medical professional advocacy organizations.
“I want to provide constituent services for those that affect primarily the third ward residents and the concerns they have. Of course I realize that if I get elected, I have to be concerned about the greater city,” Coulthart said. “I’m interested in quality of life issues and also being able to provide essential services for the city residents in a way that is going to benefit them, with what we can afford.”
Coulthart expressed a desire to work more on the quality of life projects in Oneida, such as the Rail Trail, the Duross Conservancy, the library and Mount Hope, to name a few.
“This is home for me. Oneida is a great place. We live here by choice,” he said. “I made a decision to come back here in 1988 and it’s now time in my life to give back to the community and make this as nice a home as possible.”