5 incumbents unopposed in re-election bids
Assessors’ race has no candidates
RHINEBECK, N.Y. » Town voters on Nov. 7 will find a local ballot with no contested races for supervisor, two Town Board seats, town justice and highway superintendent, and an assessors’ race with no candidates at all.
Supervisor
Incumbent Democrat Elizabeth Spinzia, 55, of 5 Upper Hook Road, is seeking a third two-year term. She previously ran unsuccessfully for the office in 2009, won a Town Board seat in 2011 and was elected supervisor in 2013.
Spinzia, a Realtor with Northern Dutchess Realty, has lived in the town for 13 years.
“Two issues that are at the forefront for us are the proper staffing of our planning and zoning department and our assessor’s office,” she said. “We spent $2 million on our comprehensive plan . ... The process of getting building permits is a Baroque process and doesn’t serve the end user well. We also have a lot of enforcement of our code that we spent that we spend $2 million developing and passing. So the board believes we need to move to a full-time zoning enforcement officer to lead a restructuring of that department.”
Spinzia said she would also like to continue working with the village of Rhinebeck and Dutchess County on shared services.
“Shared services is what’s going to allow us to deliver services at higher quality for less money,” she said.
Spinzia is a 1980 graduate of Southampton High School and 1984 graduate of Bard College, where she received a bachelor’s degree in literature. She and her husband, James Stevenson, a software developer, have one child.
Town Board
Councilman Chauncey Walker, 79, of 12 South St., a Democrat, was appointed to the seat in February and is seeking his first full-term. He has lived in the town since 1988.
“We recently passed an affordable housing law and I think we should be working on the production of affordable housing,” he said. “We have been studying zoning in an area we call the four corners, which is that area generally around the intersection of Routes 9 and 9G, and whether zoning there needs updating.”
Walker said “there continues to be interest in enacting an historic preservation ordinance. We have one in the village. We don’t have one in the town, but we’ll be working on that.”
Walker graduated from Beatrice High School in Nebraska in 1956, received a bachelor’s degree in history from Harvard University in Massachusetts in 1960, and graduated from Columbia Law School in 1963. He and his wife, Gina, have four children.
Councilwoman Brennan Kearney, 42, of 16 Center St., was appointed to the Town Board in September and is seeking her first full four-year term on the Democratic line. A self-employed construction manager, she lived in the town for eight years.
“We passed an affordable housing law but we need to work on refining it and making sure that it’s something that can be acted on,” Kearney said. “We need to identify ways to bring affordable housing to Rhinebeck.”
“We’ve been really great environmental stewards of Rhinebeck,” she said. “The board has supported a lot of initiatives in the past and we have some more opportunities for that coming up.”
Kearney graduated from Cleveland Heights-University Heights High School in Ohio in 1992, received a bachelor’s degree in English from Vassar College in 1996, and received a master’s degree in fine arts from New York University in 1999. She is a mother of three.
Town justice
Justice John Kane, 70, of 8 Seymour Drive, is an attorney in private practice who is seeking a seventh four-year term. He is on the Republican and Conservative lines.
Appointed to the seat in 1991, he previously lost a 1977 bid for Dutchess County Legislature and a
1978 bid for a Town Board seat.
Kane graduated from Rhinebeck High School in 1965. He received a bachelor’s degree in political science from Drew University in Madison, N.J., in 1969,
and his law degree from Albany Law School in 1973. He served in the New York National Guard from 1969 to 1975.
Highway superintendent
Incumbent Barry Sherrod, 59, of 323 Ackert Hook Road, is running on the Democratic line for a second
two-year term. A lifelong town resident, he owns S and S Tree and Landscaping. He and his wife, Kelly, have one child.
Sherrod graduated from Rhinebeck High School in 1976, received an associate’s degree in math from Dutchess Community College in 1980 and received a bachelor’s degree in math from Cornell University in
1982. He served in the U.S. Navy from 1982 to 1990 as a commissioned officer and pilot.
Assessor
There are no candidates on the ballot for two seats on the town Assessment Board of Review. One seat has a three-year term; the other is for one year to finish a term.