Three candidates vie for supervisor’s post

Incumbent Supervisor Mike Baden’s bid for a second term will be challenged on Nov. 5 by two people.

On the ballot will be Baden, of 110 Woodland Ridge Road, Kerhonkson; Michael Sommer, of 28 Cooper St., Accord; and Kyle Humphrey, of 119 Holly Road, Napanoch.

Baden, 57, is will be on the Democratic ballot line. He won a race for Rondout Valley school board in 2016 and supervisor in 2017. He is a self-employed production manager for special events, entertainment, concerts and trade shows. He graduated from Red Hook High School in 1980, earned an associate’s degree in humanities from Ulster County Community College in 1983 and received a bachelor’s degree in theater production from SUNY New Paltz in 1985.

Baden is on the Ulster County Trails Advisory Committee and the Shawangunk Mountain Scenic Byway Commission.

“We’re getting a lot of tourism, a lot of new tourism-based businesses,” he said. “With those come the concerns of noise and traffic and refuse along the roads, so we’re struggling with how to balance the growth in tourism and tourism attractions with the rural life style of the town of Rochester.”

Baden added that “we are going to continue exploring solar in our community. We have two facilities that are opening and we’re going to continue exploring more options because it is revenue to the town.”

Sommer, 62, ran unsuccessfully in 2017 for a Town Board seat. He will be on the Conservative ballot line. He is assessor for the towns of Denning and Hardenburgh. He is a lifetime resident of the town and with his wife, Regina, has three children. He graduated from Rondout Valley high School in 1975, earned a bachelor’s degree in English from Cathedral College of the Immaculate Conception in 1979, and received an associate’s degree in electronics from Ulster County Community College in 1983.

Sommer is president of the Pine Bush Cemetery Association.

“You’ve got ... the city folk, the second homeowners, and you’ve got the country folk who have been living there forever,” he said, “so it seems to me

that a lot of times they don’t see eye to eye. But if we can concentrate what is the best thing for the town, kind of like talk and be in accord instead of discord, that would maybe help the situation a little and help people to understand a little more about the other side.”

Humphrey could not be reached for an interview.