Clint Hollingsworth (Enterprise photo — Aaron Cerbone)

TUPPER LAKE — Village Trustee Clint Hollingsworth will challenge town Supervisor Patti Littlefield for Tupper Lake’s top town seat at the Republican caucus in July.

He said he thinks he can do a better job in leading the town and wants to be more aggressive in pursuing growth opportunities, such as ideas proposed by the Tupper Lake Business Group.

He will seek the nomination of the Conservative Party at its June 10 caucus and the Republican line at its caucus in July. A date has yet to be set for this caucus.

Hollingsworth said he also gathered the 46 signatures needed to run on the independent Maple Leaf party line.

Littlefield is also running on the Republican line. She was not able to be contacted Tuesday in time for this article.

The general election is on Nov. 2.

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“Open for business”

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Hollingsworth said he’s had his sights set on running for the past year-and-a-half but that it’s been an accumulating decision.

He was diagnosed with stage 4 esophageal cancer in September 2020, and after months of ongoing chemotherapy he said he has a good prognosis and feels it’s “now or never.”

He said Tupper Lake’s growth is in the town’s hands. While the village board he currently sits on oversees the community’s services and personnel, the town owns and operates amenities and properties such as the Tupper Lake Country Club, the James C. Frenette Sr. Cross-Country Trails and Little Wolf Beach.

He said he likes everyone on the town board but feels the village has made advancements in recent years while the town has not.

“They’ve done a great job of maintaining,” Hollingsworth said. “There are two dominant people on that board. And those two dominant people set the pace, and I think they set the pace for not being aggressive enough.”

He said, if elected, he would immediately begin his messaging that “We’re open for business.”

Asked if that focus would result in maintenance of regular town duties being left behind, Hollingsworth said he believes that maintenance will be a natural part of making improvements.

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Business Group and Big Tupper

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Asked for a specific area he feels the town is not being aggressive in, Hollingsworth mentioned the Tupper Lake Business Group’s recreation plan. The group of business and community members has pitched the town on a multi-phase, multi-million-dollar plan to build out recreational infrastructure.

Hollingsworth said he fully agrees with the plan; he just thinks it needs to be fine-tuned. He sits on the group’s golf course committee.

He also feels the town board has been too hesitant to support this plan.

“I feel there are a few on that board that are a little resentful of what the Tupper Lake Business Group has presented,” Hollingsworth said. “There is definitely resistance.”

He feels the group has volunteered a lot of time and effort but its work is not appreciated by the town board.

“I think they’re looking a gift horse in the mouth,” Hollingsworth said.

The first and biggest request by the group is for the town to purchase the Big Tupper Ski Area if it comes up on a county foreclosure auction.

There have been several plans to reopen it in the years since, including a development group a local volunteer group that ran the mountain for a few seasons, but nothing has stuck. Hollingsworth said he skied Big Tupper on the last day it was open before it closed in 1999.

“It was our town’s biggest asset, especially for our winter economy,” Hollingsworth said. “If we let Big Tupper slip through our fingers this time, it’s going to be gone forever.”

He also said he wants to invest more in other town amenities, particularly the golf course and cross-country ski area. He likes what he sees going on there and wants it to become a more popular year-round venue.

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Taxes and population

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Hollingsworth said the town needs more residents to expand its tax base.

“I’ve said it before and a lot of people may cringe, but it’s the reality: Taxes don’t go down,” Hollingsworth said. “Wages don’t go down; they always go up. Costs of goods goes up.”

He said Tupper Lake’s population has waned in the past 30 years while the town has all the same infrastructure and amenities to maintain. This means residents have a larger individual tax burden, and he said tax rates may one day become unsustainable.

He said an increased population will also improve village and school taxes, and add to the workforce.

He believes Tupper Lake needs to market itself as a place to visit, live and open businesses, in conjunction with the promotion for which it contracts with the Regional Office of Sustainable Tourism.

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Housing and lodging

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As the world changes during the coronavirus pandemic, Hollingsworth feels Tupper Lake is on the cusp of a boom. He referenced the “Great Reshuffling,” a real estate phenomenon during the pandemic in which people are moving around, particularly from urban to rural areas.

He said barriers to rural life have been lifted.

“The time is now,” he said.

But people need a place to live.

“One of the biggest issues in Tupper Lake is the lack of housing,” Hollingsworth said.

He owns an apartment building and said when someone moves out he doesn’t have time to even advertise the vacancy before word of mouth has brought a new tenant in.

He said new housing, like that proposed in the former Oval Wood Dish factory building, is important.

Asked about short-term rentals, a controversial issue in Saranac Lake and Lake Placid, he said he could see how too many STRs could eat up a town’s housing stock and become a problem. But he’d hesitant to regulate them, saying he would not want to impede someone’s right to rent out their property short-term.

He is currently building cabins for use as short-term rentals.

He also said Tupper Lake does not have enough hotel rooms. He welcomes the proposed Crossroads Hotel at the corner of Mill and Park streets but said the town needs more.

With more lodging, he said the town can also host more youth sports. He said there’s a big youth sports scene in Tupper Lake, especially in baseball and hockey, and that tournaments could bring in hundreds of visitors.

Hollingsworth believes the quality of life in Tupper Lake is high, with a friendly community and a “soul-healing” natural environment.

He said he wants to bring the Tupper Lake Broadband Committee town Council member John Quinn started “across the finish line.” Hollingsworth is on the committee. He said COVID-19 slowed its progress.

Hollingsworth said he feels there’s a “disconnect” between the town and village boards and would like the two board to hold quarterly meetings together.

He said as he lays in bed at night, he thinks about ideas for how he’d like to improve his community.