Article Photos

BLOOMINGDALE - St. Armand's only Democratic town board member is running for town supervisor against Republican Joyce Morency, who has occupied the position since 1981.

"I think we need a change in the way business is conducted," Tom Jones said Thursday at the Saranac Lake Block Party, where he and his family were at the Essex County Democratic Committee's tent.

Morency said in an interview Friday morning that she thinks she has done a good job of keeping taxes down and that people know her and support her fiscally conservative record.

"I have proven myself and my abilities to the people of St. Armand," Morency said. "I'm the lady who will protect St. Armand and get the job done."

The town supervisor's term is four years. The election is Nov. 3.

Highway Superintendent Roger Oliver, town Justice Sheridan Swinyer, town Clerk Cindy Woodson and Tax Collector Nancy Heath are also running for re-election this November. Two town board seats are also up. Town Councilman Charlie Whitson is retiring, and Paul Woodruff is running for his seat; Councilman Jimmy Dakin is running for re-election. All of them are Republicans except for Heath, who is a Democrat; all are running unopposed.

Jones also plans to run on the Adirondack Pride Party line, to help appeal to voters who might support him but are reluctant to vote for a Democrat, he said.

Morency said she doesn't think party politics will play much role in the race.

"People know about me," Morency said. "I don't think people care if I'm a Republican or a Democrat, and I don't care what they are when they walk in here asking for something."

Jones said he favors creating a town Web site as a way to make information more easily available to the public and to help local businesses network.

"We need to involve all segments of the town - Rockledge, the Pisgah area, Park Avenue ..." Jones said.

Jones also favors making agendas publicly available before town board meetings and drawing up a town code of ethics.

"He wants to run things more professionally," said Sue Jones, Jones's wife.

Morency said she thinks the town's government is already run openly, saying that meeting minutes are posted on the county's Web site and anybody is welcome to speak. For example, she said, she made sure everyone had a chance to speak last year at town board meetings at which some members of the public were worried about a proposal to put a Sunmount group home on Rockledge Road.

Morency cited her work to obtain state and federal grants for the town over the years as one of her successes: for the town's youth recreation and employment programs, for example, for the reservoir which was built about six years ago, for various senior programs and to pay heating costs for seniors and low-income people. She said she thinks accessing these grants is especially critical for small towns, which cannot afford such projects otherwise.

Jones said he thinks the town should maintain better the town hall and especially the Barnard building, a former store next to the town garage that's on the National Registry of Historic Places. He said the town should seek out grant money for the work.

"It's not too late to save it, but we need to work on that," Jones said.

Morency said she thinks the town hall needs more space, but the town's taxpayers can't afford it.

"We keep working with less space," Morency said. "We're fine. We're surviving."

This is the first time someone has run against Morency since the 1980s, Morency said.

Sue Jones is currently reorganizing the Democratic Party in St. Armand. Tom Jones chairs the town's Democratic committee and is on the Essex County Democratic Committee, the first time in years the committee has had a representative from St. Armand. He is also the first Democratic town councilman in about 35 years.

---

Essex County

Essex County is run by a board of supervisors, meaning whoever wins will also be part of the county government.

"I believe I could work effectively with Democratic and Republican supervisors," Jones said.

Morency has served on and chaired "almost every committee, from Finance to the Department of Public Works," she said. She was county budget liaison officer for six years, and she was appointed the board's first woman chair in 1994.

Essex County spends 46 percent of its property tax revenues, or $6.2 million, on Medicaid. Medicaid payments are split between local governments and states, and New York and North Carolina are the two states where local governments pay the highest percentage. Jones said he wants to "work with the other supervisors in lobbying to raise our portion."

Morency said the current system is "a nightmare," but "there's nobody except our state and federal legislators who could change that."

---

Background

Morency has been involved in local politics since 1979, when she became tax collector and treasurer for Bloomingdale, which was a separate village at the time. It dissolved at midnight on Dec. 31, 1985. She is also a former chairwoman of the Essex County Republican Committee.

Jones is a retired school teacher, principal and administrator. He was on the Saranac Lake Central School Board and an assessor in the town of Saranac. He taught at Bloomingdale Elementary School for 21 years and spent the bulk of his administrative career in Cincinnatus, near Cortland. He is on the Democratic state committee and the Democratic Rural Conference as well as the town and county committees.

---

Contact Nathan Brown at (518) 891-2600 ext. 26 or nbrown@adirondackdailyenterprise.com.