Barrett facing challenge for nod
Kelley seeking GOP endorsement
CLIFTON PARK, N.Y. >> A former Republican town councilman and Planning Board member announced last week he plans to challenge supervisor Philip Barrett for the Clifton Park Republican Committee endorsement.
In a recent letter to committee members, Dale Kelley announced his run, recalled his nearly 40 years in town as well as his extensive public service record, and asked for their vote on the endorsement.
In 2017, the supervisor’s salary is $98,374.
Kelley, 68, is well known to longtime residents. He was first elected to the Clifton Park Town Board in 1989 and later served as its deputy supervisor from 1992 to 1995. While a member of the board, he served under Democratic as well as Republican leadership.
After leaving the town board, he was appointed to the planning board in 1995. He served on that body until 1999 when he was appointed chairman of the Clifton Park Zoning Board of Appeals where he served until 2005.
In an interview Monday, Kelley said he is running for office once again because of what he sees happening or not happening around him.
“The roads need work and the town needs a new municipal center (town hall),” he said. “The one we have now is almost an embarrassment for a community like ours. We’re not in the 1950s. Look at the new building they have in Halfmoon. I’m a fiscal conservative and I believe it’s fine to have money for a rainy day, but not a hurricane.”
Kelley’s past work experience includes working for the 3M Company and Anheuser Busch. He is a licensed real estate agent and director of sales for the Bentley on Wall Street.
Kelley said he has done all the formal preparation for making a run against a longtime incumbent. He has spoken with the town’s Republican Chairman Peter Murray and Steve Bulger, the Saratoga County Republican Chairman, and told both that if he failed to get the committee’s endorsement he plans to primary for it.
“Being in there as long as Supervisor Barrett has creates negatives as well as positives,” he said. “Sixteen years is a long time. I believe in doing a job and leaving after a few years. The demographics are changing. The mood of the country is changing, the election in November proved that. I have an itch and I wanted to scratch it. I said to myself, ‘If not now, when?’”
In his letter to town Republican Committee members, Kelley wrote that while growing up in New Hampshire his mother and father instilled in him many values which he continues today.
“I come from a family that believed that giving, rather than receiving was the right thing to do,” he wrote. “I continue the tradition of my dad’s public service in town and state gov-
ernment.”
The letter noted his volunteer work with CAPTAIN, Saratoga County Arts Council, Saratoga County 21st Century Commission, Shenendehowa Budget Review Committee, the Southern Saratoga County Chamber Board of Directors, and the Southern Saratoga YMCA Board of Directors.
When asked if he wanted to take a position on the upcoming permissive referendum on the sale of 34 acres of school district land, Kelley demurred, saying he would let the people speak and watch the results of the vote.
Asked if he would take a position on acquiring additional public recreational space like the Clifton Common, he said he would like to review that particular situation before making any statement.
“I remember the battles that were fought over the Common,” he said. “There were people who really opposed it and look at it — it’s a gem.”