The Village of Montgomery, as a follow-up to the mayor’s one-year appointments from last year, will hold an election on March 18 at the Montgomery Senior Center to determine two trustees who will serve four-year terms on the board. Since January, two pairs of candidates have announced their entries in the race, each yearning to serve and create a positive impact on their community through the board of trustees.

Kevin Conero
Conero originally lived in Highland Falls before moving to Walden in 1976 and the Village of Montgomery in 1988. After graduating from Valley Central High School, he attended SUNY Orange and Mount Saint Mary College, earning degrees in information technology. Conero has utilized his IT experience as a full-time network communication specialist, assisting numerous K12 schools like New Paltz CSD and Ulster BOCES with technology initiatives for the past 37 years.

In the Village of Montgomery, Conero began his government career in 1992 as a member of the ZBA. He went on to serve numerous boards and committees over the last three decades, playing major roles in the village’s comprehensive plan, historic guidelines, New York Forward grant process, and General Montgomery Day. One of his biggest roles was as planning board chairman, in which he collaborated with fellow planning members and reviewed countless projects for 28 years.

Conero was appointed to the board of trustees in December 2023 and elected in March 2024; since becoming a trustee, he has overseen the ongoing water moratorium, updates to the village website, and reinforcements to cybersecurity.

“The mayor has relied on me in a couple of different ways. He assigns me to either be a liaison or to work with certain projects like the water moratorium,” Conero said. “He’s also relied on me to do other things like update our website. We moved forward with new cybersecurity initiatives in the village office, so I worked with the village office staff and the court system upstairs.”

As a longtime resident and official, Conero loves the village and greatly enjoys its history, safety, and close-knit community. He sees government work as a way of giving back to his home, and he hopes to continue serving residents as a trustee.

“I love the village’s historic charm, the walkability, and the safety that we have here. The people here are very kind and generous, and I commend all the people who volunteer their time with all the events that we have. We seem to have an event almost every month,” Conero said. “I wanted to give back to my community and serve in some capacity that would benefit everyone, and it’s led me to serving people for the last three decades.”

Conero asserted that he brings a wide range of experiences to the table, from planning and zoning to project management and IT. If reelected, he wants to form a new comprehensive plan committee, collaborate with village staff further on the NY Forward process, and complete the truck bypass project. Conero also wishes to establish gateway zones between the Town and Village of Montgomery, an idea that he feels would help preserve the village’s charms and boundaries.

“I would like to see a definitive edge between the Town of Montgomery and the village. When you come into the village, I want people to know when they cross over to the village,” Conero said regarding gateways. “I think by having a gateway zone with certain types of zoning involved, we can maintain our village integrity and historic charm.”

Conero assured residents that he is always available to speak with outside of meetings and encourages everyone to reach out if they have any concerns or questions.

Stephen Imbriani
Imbriani grew up in the Village of Montgomery and graduated from Valley Central High School. In 1983, he moved out to the Midwest, where he studied at the US Air Force Academy in Colorado and graduated from Boise State University in Idaho. At Boise State University, Imbriani earned an Associate of Science in Registered Nursing, degrees in organizational leadership and multidisciplinary studies, and certificates in grant writing and service learning.

While living in the Midwest, Imbriani juggled numerous responsibilities across 40 years. He worked at the Family Medicine Residency of Idaho as a lead nurse; he coached baseball at Boise State University and three Boise school districts; he served as the executive director of The Daydream Foundation, a nonprofit for after school and mentorship programs; and he owned the Sandlot Sports Complex, a baseball school, for 15 years. Throughout his career, Imbriani has always been passionate about providing students with mentorships and similar programs, opportunities that he felt were lacking when he attended school.

“I’ve been a coach for most of my life, I started coaching professionally in 1986 in Texas, California, and Idaho. I predominantly coached in Idaho for the last 25 years,” Imbriani said. “I coached in high schools and colleges, I’ve worked with some private clubs, and I owned a baseball school for 15 years. And in all of these programs, we always had a nonprofit wing to them, creating mentorships and giving scholarships.”

In 2023, Imbriani moved back to the Village of Montgomery to take care of his mother; since returning, he joined the VC Scholarship Council and the Montgomery Little League board. Despite being away for a few decades, Imbriani loves the village, and both he and his family enjoy getting involved in community outreach.

Imbriani, however, is dissatisfied with the current village board; he feels that its members approve most decisions without careful consideration, neglects major issues like water and overdevelopment, and does not provide enough services to the village’s youth and senior groups. Confident that he could make a difference as a trustee, Imbirani decided to run in this year’s election with Nokland.

“My desire to run emerged from the realization that residents’ concerns and even their participation were being dismissed, and in cases blatantly blocked, by the current village leadership. 43 percent of the vote in the last election has been silenced and now has no voice, and access for the elderly has been purposefully restricted when a change to a far more accessible venue is readily available,” Imbriani said. “We must revive our ability to work together and mend the fabric of this community because our current behavior is jeopardizing our children’s future and the future of our village.”

As a coach and team player, Imbriani wants to bring fresh ideas to meetings, brainstorm creative solutions to ongoing problems, establish contingency plans, and secure more emergency funding. He asserted that he will work with anyone and wants to collaborate with the board to conduct more productive, in-depth conversations for future decisions. Imbriani also seeks to provide the village’s youth with more engagement opportunities, whether through mentorships or new municipal boards.

“I really want to work on creating some mentorships in the village,” Imbriani said. “When I came out of high school, I can’t tell you how many people who graduated changed their majors in college because they had no idea what they wanted to do. It’s something that’s been prevalent here that I want to address.”

Cynthia Nokland
Nokland is a lifetime village resident who graduated from Valley Central High School in 1989 and SUNY Orange in 1991. For over 20 years, she has dedicated her career to account management and previously worked for Grainger, Winsupply, and Advance Auto Parts. In September 2023, she became an account manager for Bob Barker, a faith-based company that sells and distributes supplies to corrections facilities in New York, New Jersey, Delaware. Nokland has especially enjoyed working for Bob Barker, giving her opportunities to help people and reform prison systems.

“Working with them has just been amazing because their vision, missions, and values are just right in line with how I live my life,” Nokland said. “Seeing all the facilities and talking with people have really warmed my heart, I made the right choice to do this.”

Passionate for her community, Nokland has devoted countless hours to volunteer work, never missing the chance to assist someone in need or raise money for a good cause. She is an active member of Montgomery’s First Presbyterian Church, helping her fellow members with fundraising and preserving the church’s structure. She also collaborates with several local organizations, including the Bethel Woods Center of the Arts, The Habitat for Humanity of Greater Newburgh, the Orange and Sullivan Community Foundation, and Valley Central’s All Night Grad and Scholarship Council.

Last year, Nokland ran in the village’s trustee election, hoping to increase her outreach efforts through municipal work. While she lost the race, she was incredibly proud of herself and appreciated the support she received from voters. The experience motivated Nokland to try even harder for the next election, and she is excited to double her efforts, talk to even more residents, and run with Imbriani.

“The outpour and amount of votes that I received in the last election was so encouraging that I knew I’d be back. It was only a year ago, but I said I would come back,” Nokland said. “There were so many people who believed in me, and I told them that I’ll do it again. Now it’s a four-year term, it’s not a one-year term, so this election is for all the marbles.”

Nokland feels that the current village board has been at a standstill for the past year, accomplishing little and sparking animosity from residents. If elected, she would push the board to plan ahead for long-term problems, address neglected agenda items, and provide residents with a more welcoming environment during meetings. Most importantly, Nokland wants residents, and especially younger residents, to play a bigger role in the village’s decision-making and projects, providing more opportunities for engagement and volunteer work.

“The board keeps a tight rope as to who’s allowed to help and who’s not in the village. They’ll welcome your ideas, but it’s not an opening group,” Nokland said. “Me and Imbriani want to get younger people involved in opportunities. Instead of just a few people doing everything, why not have more people help? Or even offer volunteer classes or organizations that can produce?”

Randy Wilbur

Wilbur originally grew up in Maine and graduated from Messalonskee High School. He moved to the Village of Montgomery in 1990 to pursue job opportunities; he began his career in construction, then joined Novartis, a pharmaceutical company, in 1995. Wilbur worked in the company’s manufacturing facility for 21 years, managing various projects and processes. After Novartis closed its manufacturing facility in 2016, Wilbur hopped back into construction and started his own home renovation and repair business.

“At Novartis, I started on the shop floor and worked my way up through to middle management. “I had varying responsibilities, including project management, capital projects, process improvements, and process excellence,” Wilbur said. “These things are familiar in the manufacturing world but have served me well after leaving, and they’ve given me the tools to tackle some challenges that we have here in the village.”

Wilbur became involved in the village government around 2000 when former Mayor Steve Brescia appointed him to the historical review board. He stayed on the HRB for a few months before switching over to the ZBA, serving as chairman for over two decades. In April 2024, Mayor Mike Hembury appointed Wilbur to the board of trustees, filling in the last vacant seat following last year’s election. Outside of government, Wilbur and his friend previously ran General Montgomery Day’s soapbox derby for 14 years.

As a 35-year resident, Wilbur loves living in the village, reminding him a lot of his former home in Maine. He especially appreciates the passionate community and the area’s safety, perfect for raising his family.

“I’ve always enjoyed the fact that this village feels a lot like home back in Maine, being a small, close-knit community. It comes with pros and cons, but I like that raising a family here is very safe,” Wilbur said. “I like the proximity to the village, both for myself and for my family, and I feel that my kids are safe when they’re out.”

Wilbur has enjoyed serving the community over the past year, and he hopes to continue tackling the village’s challenges with another term. Drawing from his background in zoning and construction, he wants to address the village’s aging sewer plant, support local businesses, discourage bad habits, and expand community activities like An Olde Fashioned Holiday. He also seeks to bring more stability to the board, helping the village navigate turnovers and practice better decision-making. Above all, Wilbur asserted that he would treat the budget through a frugal lens; as he put it, he would spend village money “as if it were my own.”

“I’m a taxpayer in the village, so any money wasted ultimately comes out of my pocket too. We all like to live in a village, but we’d also like to afford living in the village,” Wilbur said. “My number one priority is to make sure that every dime that gets spent is spent responsibly. If you’ve watched past meetings, you’ll see that I question the expenses.”