Plattekill Democrats choose slate

By Mark Reynolds
Posted 6/16/21

At their June 8th caucus, Plattekill Democrats chose their slate of candidates for the fall elections.Judy Mayle and Mike Lembo competed for the nomination for Town Supervisor, the only contested …

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Plattekill Democrats choose slate

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At their June 8th caucus, Plattekill Democrats chose their slate of candidates for the fall elections.
Judy Mayle and Mike Lembo competed for the nomination for Town Supervisor, the only contested seat at the caucus. Mayle won the nomination by a vote of 32 to Lembo’s 27 votes.

Cindy Delgado was nominated for an open Town Council seat and Bobby Wager, who is a Republican, received the Democratic nod for Highway Superintendent.

Marisa McClinton is the Democratic nominee for the Ulster County Legislature for District 12 and will be challenging Republican Kevin Roberts in November.
Mayle has lived in Plattekill for 35 years and her last year serving as Supervisor was in 2002. She has retired from her law firm and now trains quarter horses on her farm. She decided to run again because of what has been happening in town in recent years.

“I’ve actually gotten angry that our town is in another controversy over a track and it really shouldn’t be,” she said. “This is our history, our town has always been in controversy with a race track. The first time we change the laws nobody pays attention on the Town Board.”

Mayle said the existing tracks, “had to come in to town hall and register and the Town Board would grant them an operating permit every year. Any new tracks were subject to the new law that was adopted in 2006 that outlined what they were supposed to do and where they were supposed to be located.” She said the present crisis started because when the new applicant came in, nobody watched the process so now we’re all fighting over this and if the town had done what they were supposed to do we probably wouldn’t be here.”

Mayle said she took an interest in the last town budget, “when the board was arguing over $600 bucks. I said there’s got to be a problem because they were arguing about spending $600 for movies in the park.”

After hearing people say that Republicans haven’t raised taxes. She took a closer look at the budget.
“But they haven’t slowed down their spending but have increased their spending and they’re using our savings; savings we could use for some of the stuff people want to do,” she said. “Last year they [Town Board] spent $335,000 [from savings] to supplement the budget and they’re going to have to do the same thing this year.”

Mayle said she would bring her experience, credentials and past record to the job of Supervisor. She describes her “record as taking the vision the community of where they would like to go and making that a reality.” She said Plattekill is a very diverse community, “we are one town and one community and the best thing about our town is the people. So we have to work together, our government with our residents, with our organizations and move forward and improve our community and not always be in controversy.”

Mayle said she is hoping to open conversations, to tap their ideas and get them interested and involved once again in their town government, “so we can do something more than what we’ve not been doing.”

Cindy Delgado is a 40 year resident of Plattekill and is no stranger to town government. She has previously served three, 4 year terms on the Town Board and two, 2 year terms as Town Clerk. After a time away from politics she decided to throw her hat in the ring once again.

“When I looked at the state of things I thought I know budgets when I was a Town Councilwoman and the federal infrastructure money is coming in and I would like to see it go to what needs to be done,” she said.

Delgado would love to once again serve on the Town Board.

“I really love this town but if you are going in for thank you’s don’t do it. If you going in to help the community then do it,” she said. “I tell people that I don’t always make the popular choice but I make the right choice and I’ve taken flack for it.”

Delgado takes pride in reading everything that is before the board prior to voting on any given matter.
“If I have questions I ask them, so when I make a decision I feel it’s an educated decision and I don’t always go with the flow,” she said. “All I know is that in the small town of Plattekill it’s important that you get along and work with everybody.”

Wager has served as Highway Superintendent for 12 years.

“I started with the town as a mechanic in 2005 and I ran for office in 2009 and started in 2010 as the Highway Superintendent,” he said.

Wager said he is pleased to have been endorsed by the Democratic Party.

“They have endorsed me in the past and for a couple of years it just worked out in my favor and when they came to me this year and asked me if I would take the endorsement, I couldn’t say no,” he said. “I’ve worked with so many of these fine people and I have respect for everybody here.”

When asked about his plans for the next few years, Wager laughed, saying, “there is always a to do list and it seems like you never catch up. This year we’re paving Camp Sunset Road and a portion of South Street that I did half of a few years ago and have to finish. Next year my plan is to prep Freetown Highway in its entirety, that’s about 3 miles. So we’re hoping to change all the culvert pipes in the road this fall and be ready for blacktop next year.”

Wager said he has his eye on tackling a water crossing down on Old Mill Street in Plattekill by the Quassaick Creek, which is a water supply for the Town of Wawarsing.

“We applied through the Bridge New York program for some grants so we’re waiting to see how that pans out, fingers crossed,” he said.

Wager will be replacing the gas and diesel tanks by the highway garage as the fall approaches. He said writing it all down by hand on a clipboard is inaccurate and out of date and instead, an all electronic tracking system will be put in place.