BLOOMINGDALE — There are two open seats on the St. Armand town council in the upcoming Nov. 7 election, and two people running for those seats — Karl Law, who is running for his third term on the Republican line, and Donna Whitelaw, who is running for the first time on an independent line.

Whitelaw decided to run because she learned Councilman Don Amell is not seeking reelection. She wouldn’t have run in opposition to him, she said. She thinks the board has been doing a “wonderful job” and she wants to be a part of that.

Whitelaw is running on the independent “Integrity” party line because she did not want to force a Republican primary with Law, whom she shares a political affiliation with.

She is currently a member of both the St. Armand Veterans Task Force and Youth Task Force. She said she cares about the town and wants to be more involved in maintaining its services and setting it up for growth.

She said she has time now that she recently retired from teaching science at North Country Community College. Whitelaw has never been on a government board before but she’s been involved in “civic minded things” for years — a member on the Clifton-Fine hospital board, an EMT with the Cranberry Lake Rescue Squad, the St. Lawrence County coroner. She’s also a licensed funeral director who taught mortuary science at SUNY Canton.

Law has spent nearly five years on the board now. He joined on a one-year term, was reelected to a four-year term and is now running for his second full term. He said he’s learned a lot and feels he’s finding his “rhythm.”

“You know what? I really enjoy it,” Law said.

Not running for reelection was “never in the cards” for him. It’s his way of giving back to the town.

When he joined the board, Law said a major goal was to stay under state’s tax cap on the budget each year, limiting how much taxes rise on residents. And he said they’ve never gone over it.

He feels the town has made “huge progress” with the water district infrastructure in the Rockledge neighborhood.

Law is proud that they created a 25- to 30-year plan for every purchase in the town highway department. This is a schedule for phasing out old equipment and replacing it with new ones, spread out over years so it doesn’t all come on one year — like what happened on the year he joined the board.

There’s still a lot of work to do, he added. He wants to see the field behind the firehouse be used more often by children and adults alike. He wants to get more grants for maintaining infrastructure and roads. And he wants to lower water and sewer rates.

These rates are “always a struggle,” he said. These services are user-funded, and they only have around 300 users, so the rates are high. The town had new facility built a number of years ago, too.

Early voting in the general election will begin on Oct. 28 and last until Nov. 5. Polls open on election day, Nov. 7, at 6 a.m. and will be open until 9 p.m.