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Tupper village candidates focus on economy

TUPPER LAKE – After sitting down separately with the four candidates for the village Board of Trustees, it is evident that spurring economic growth and creating jobs are at the forefront of each of their minds.

Democrats Clint Hollingsworth and Dave McMahon, and Republicans Ray Bigrow and incumbent David “Haji” Maroun offered varying viewpoints on how to accomplish this and outlined their strengths as trustees. They are vying for two vacancies on the board in the Nov. 8 election.

They are presented here in alphabetical order by last name.

Ray Bigrow

He may not be known in local political circles, but Bigrow, 62, has gained a modicum of notoriety for his power-lifting competitions by setting in 2009 national and world records in the bench press and dead lift in his class.

This retired Franklin County employee said his primary concern is keeping taxes aligned with what working-class families can afford.

“You have to step up if you want to see change and growth,” he said.

As a county senior citizen community service employee for 17 years, his job was to interview applicants to judge their eligibility for benefits. Retired from that job, he works part time for the Franklin County Board of Elections and is a member of the Tupper Lake Republican Committee. He said he was asked to run for office.

“The more I see of the political scene, the more I see the need for more people to run,” he said. “I want to do more for my community.”

Taxes are his top priority.

“I want to work to keep them as low as possible, knowing firsthand the struggle,” he said. “We need to keep taxes to a minimum by looking at the costs of projects and separating wants from needs.”

Bigrow is an ardent proponent of economic growth and, like the other candidates, supports of the Adirondack Club and Resort, but he expressed skepticism that the project would break ground.

“This is the village’s chance to move forward,” he said. “If we don’t do it now, we may never do it.

“It’s been a long time coming,” he said of the project. If elected, he said he would find out what the board could do to move it forward. “We need to figure out where the project is. It could give the community the boost it needs.”

He said there should be other enterprises in line as well as the ACR “to bring people to the community,” although he didn’t provide any examples or ideas.

When asked if the village and town government should be combined, he said it may be worth looking into.

“If I were elected, I could look into where our monies are best spent and look into how we can grow,” he said.

Clint Hollingsworth

This 41-year-old grew up in Piercefield, moved to the village when he was 22 and started his business, Hollingsworth Construction and Renovation LLC. He resides in the village with his wife and children. This is his first foray into politics.

“I care about the community and the town,” he said. “My family and the wife’s family are rooted here. I want my kids to have opportunities here.”

If elected, he said he would bring “level-headedness and objectivity” to the board and could facilitate a smoother operation. He also would bring optimism, he said.

“I believe if you build it, they will come,” he said. “I am hoping to be elected and bring the mindset that Tupper Lake can once again be a town that can sustain the type of commerce it once did.” He recalled when Big Tupper Ski Area, the Oval Wood Dish factory and the Tupper Lake Veneer Corp. were open for business.

Hollingsworth said the most daunting issue facing Tupper Lake taxpayers is the diminishing population base combined with the need to maintain the current level of municipal services.

“Fewer people will be absorbing the cost of maintaining roads and staffing government offices. We still have the same number of miles of roads to plow and water and sewer lines to take care of.”

In that vein, he wants to increase tourism and lure a tech industry here. The cost of transporting raw materials and shipping out finished goods is high, and he said it is probably the reason there is not an industry there, he said.

“But if we can bring a service company that would hire telemarketers, or sell intangible goods, I think it would be viable,” he said. “We should be pursuing this.”

He supports the stalled Adirondack Club and Resort project “110 percent” but said its scale may be too large for the community, with more than 600 housing units. However, he said the village should keep pursuing grants to build a water main to allow snowmaking, and to open the ski area sooner than later.

“The mountain would draw in people to our restaurants and allow them (the ACR) to sell homes.”

David “Haji” Maroun

If elected, this would be Maroun’s third term as trustee.

“We’ve accomplished a lot, and I want to continue,” the 47-year-old said of his time on the village board.

For example, he said, he was involved in the creation of the multi-use Junction Pass trail; Little Loggers children’s park and the Municipal Park master plan that will overhaul the entire park on Demars Boulevard.

He listed several ways in which he said he helped save taxpayers money, including working with the New York Power Authority to shave $160,000 in interest to ratepayers. He said he helped cut a tax hike for the $3.9 million Emergency Services Building from more than $1 per $1,000 property value to 33 cents. And he helped hash out the contract between the town and village for fire services so both parties were satisfied.

Maroun said he was also part of the village staying under the tax cap for the last two years.

“Last budget, we were able to buy every department everything they needed and raised taxes less than 1 percent,” he said. “My goal is to never go over the tax cap.”

He also mentioned his involvement in securing $2 million worth of state grants toward the village’s conversion to groundwater.

Like the other candidates, Maroun supports the ACR and points to the village’s efforts in securing grants to build a water main to the property. The village still needs to secure more funding before that project can begin.

When asked if the town and village should combine, he said there is a lot to look into before it could happen.

“There are pros and cons,” he said, but he would not elaborate on what those would be.

As for the current board dynamic, he admits the meetings can get ugly sometimes, but he said he can work with anyone and works well with the town board, too.

He is a correctional officer for Adirondack Correctional Facility in Ray Brook and has a 9-year old son.

Dave McMahon

This 68-year-old former Sunmount direct care staff member said his impetus to run came from a current Board of Trustees member’s reaction to a question.

“I questioned why we weren’t using state police instead of paying our village officers overtime for traffic details for the Tinman (triathlon), and he told me, ‘If I don’t like it, move,'” McMahon said.

“That is something no taxpayer would ever hear from my lips. You can’t please all the people all the time, but I always try to understand where they are coming from.

“It’s time for some new blood so we stop spinning our wheels.”

He retired from Sunmount six years ago, was Piercefield’s assessor for 10 years in the late 1960s and early ’70s, and is the president of the Tupper Lake Rod and Gun Club.

He said the tax rate is too high and there is a lack of meaningful employment.

“There is nothing here for our kids,” he said.

To create jobs, he said the board should offer tax incentives to private businesses.

“We have empty buildings,” he said, pointing to the 100,000-square-foot former Oval Wood Dish factory. “Surely there are some kind of businesses that would fit here.” He suggested a plywood wood chip or wood pellet factory as examples.

If elected, he said he would keep the village’s debt in check as a way to control taxes.

“We can’t keep borrowing if residents can’t afford to pay it back,” he said. As an example, he pointed to federal grants that were to be used to build the new Emergency Services Building that never came to fruition.

McMahon said creating one fire district to serve the town and village could be a cost-saving measure.

“If we can conclude it won’t cost more and won’t cut jobs, I am in support of a merger,” he said.

He sees events as a way to draw people to Tupper Lake.

“There should be something going on at the (Municipal) Park every weekend,” he said. “I would work to do that, as well as work with organizers to help grow the Woodsmen’s Days,” which has been drawing smaller crowds.

An event McMahon organizes, the rod and gun club’s Northern Challenge Ice Fishing Derby, draws 1,200 or so participants to town every February, filling every motel room, he said.

“We need more events like this,” he said.

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