Rhinebeck Trustee Cruikshank resigns
Mayor Gary Bassett is seeking candidates for the Village Board seat previously held by Trustee Scott Cruikshank.
RHINEBECK, N.Y. >> Mayor Gary Bassett is seeking candidates to fill the remaining 10 months of the Village Board seat previously held by Trustee Scott Cruikshank.
The appeal was made during a telephone interview Tuesday, with Bassett saying the May 9 resignation comes only several weeks after filling the vacancy left when he was elected as mayor in March.
“This was unexpected so I am going to have to go through the process of trying to find somebody,” he said.
Bassett filled the recent vacancy with former village Trustee Brant Neuneker, who lost an election bid in 2009 before winning two-year terms in 2010 and 2012.
Bassett said Cruikshank decided to step down because employment obligations were taking too much time away from service as village trustee.
“His work right now is involving a lot more travel and was impacting on his time to be available for meeting both during the day and in the evening,” he said.
Cruikshank, 52, is a project executive with Kirchhoff and Consigli construction and had previously served on the Village Board from 2006-08 before returning last year. He has also been on the village Planning Board for four years.
“He was very active (as Village Board trustee) with the Planning Board and the (Zoning Board of Appeals) and represented the board on the code revisions that have been underway for two years,” Bassett said.
“We all see the results of his hard work in many ways,” he said.” He worked diligently to update our zoning code, thus protecting the identity of the village for years to come and our Fire Department has updated equipment and improvement its operations thanks to Scott’s efforts.”
Bassett said he does not have any candidates in mind for the vacancy and is not sure how long it will take to fill the position.
“A replacement doesn’t have to be for those positions,” he said. “I can change things based on the skills that come in. If there is somebody who has a different skill set I can reorganize.”