TUPPER LAKE — It’s a pivotal day for local politics here as the Republican Party will hold its caucuses for both the village and town governments, nominating their slate of candidates for the general election in November.

Both caucuses will be held at the Tupper Lake Emergency Services building, 21 Santa Clara Ave. The village caucus is scheduled for 6 p.m. and the town caucus is slated for 6:30 p.m. Though anyone can attend — and eventual nominees need not be registered party members — only those who are registered Republicans may vote.

Tupper Lake village residents who are registered Republicans may vote in both the village and town caucuses. Those who reside outside of the village limits in the town of Tupper Lake may only vote in the town caucus. For races with more people running than open seats, voting will be conducted by secret ballot. Candidates meeting the eligibility requirements who have been nominated, seconded and accept that will have the opportunity to address the room before voting.

Both caucuses this year are being chaired by Crystal Boucher, who sits on the town board but whose seat is not up for election this year.

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Village positions

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There are four positions up for election in the village government: village mayor, village justice and two trustee positions on the village board. The mayor and trustee positions each carry two-year terms and the village justice position is to fill the remainder of Justice Chris Delair’s term, who retired earlier this year. The village board intends to abolish the village court at the end of this term, and fold its responsibilities into the town court, which is currently held by Lenny Young.

Village Mayor Mary Fontana said she intends to seek reelection as mayor.

“It’s been an honor and a humbling experience to serve the people of Tupper Lake for the past 10 years on (the town and village) boards,” she wrote. “Over the past two years, I believe our village board has made real progress, fostering better communication, transparency and collaboration across all levels of government.”

Fontana, who began serving as mayor in December of 2023, noted that a two-year term gave her time to “begin meaningful work,” but not enough to see all of it through to completion.

“I’ve never believed in overstaying my effectiveness, but I do believe in seeing things through,” she wrote. “There are important initiatives underway and projects that matter to our community that I want to help bring across the finish line. I’m grateful for the support of this community, and I’m hopeful for the opportunity to continue serving Tupper Lake with dedication, accountability and heart.”

It’s unclear if anyone else intends to seek the Republican Party nomination for village mayor.

The village trustee positions up for election are currently held by Leon LeBlanc and David “Haji” Maroun. The Enterprise’s attempts to reach LeBlanc by press time Sunday evening and inquire if he plans to seek reelection were unsuccessful. Maroun said he plans on seeking reelection and wants to continue his efforts to improve Tupper Lake’s iron-laden water, as well as improve tourism initiatives in the village.

“I want to get this water situation taken care of that we’ve been working on, and the tourism,” he said. “We did lower taxes last year, that’s a good thing — I like to lower taxes.”

Maroun said on the tourism front, he wanted to incentivize more restaurants to open and work with Franklin County to improve transportation from the Tupper Lake train station to the Park Street area. He was proud of the tourism efforts the village made in regards to snowmobile trail access during winter.

“The wintertime’s great because of snowmobiles — there’s trails all over the village,” he said. “We made our own trail inside the village so that you can get to any motel around.”

Brasen LaVassaur said on Sunday that he intends to run for a village trustee position. He added that as someone who was born and raised in Tupper Lake and intends to spend the rest of his life here, he wanted to serve in local government to further the interests of the community.

“As one who has been vocal and opinionated about our town and spending, I think it’s only reasonable if I put my money where my mouth is and dedicate my time to help this situation,” he wrote in a Facebook message announcing his campaign. “I plan on living here a lifetime and my best interest is in the favor of the village and its community members.”

Attempts to reach David Plummer were unsuccessful, though reached by phone Sunday, his mother, Jennifer-Lynn Plummer, said it was his intention to seek nomination for a village trustee position.

This is not necessarily an exhaustive list of village candidates. It’s unclear if anyone else intends to seek the Republican Party nomination for the open village government positions. Per caucus rules, nominations all take place “from the floor” this evening, meaning eligible candidates can change their plans up until that point.

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Town positions

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There are three positions up for election in the town government: town supervisor and two councilor positions on the town board. Rickey Dattola is the current supervisor, and the council positions up for election are currently held by John Gillis and Rick Donah. All three positions carry four-year terms.

Dattola said he is running for reelection as supervisor to continue to oversee a few projects that kicked off under his tenure. Namely, he said that he wanted to keep on working with Big Tupper owners Josh Parnes and Martin Schapira, who bought the ski mountain at auction last fall, to help find grants and assist in permitting requirements as they move along with plans to make Big Tupper operational once again.

“Whatever we can do to help them facilitate that — we’re here,” he said. “They have a pretty good idea and they seem to be focused on it.”

Dattola also noted that he wants to continue to oversee the improvements to the inside of the Tupper Lake train station, which are largely up to the town after the state Department of Transportation completes its exterior improvements.

Though Dattola is a registered member of the Conservative Party, and cannot vote at the Republican caucuses, non-party members may be chosen by registered voters of a particular party as its nominee. It’s not uncommon for candidates, especially in local government races throughout New York, to secure the backing of multiple party lines heading into a general election.

It’s unclear if anyone else intends to seek the Republican Party nomination for town supervisor.

The Conservative Party will hold its caucuses on July 9 at 6 p.m. Those are slated to take place at Aaron Maddox Hall.

Rick Donah said Sunday that he was not seeking reelection. He was proud to have served his hometown over the past few years, but was ready for a new chapter in life.

“I’m proud to have overseen the development of the emergency services building, the municipal park master planning process, the development of the (Adirondack) Rail Trail to Tupper Lake and various civic endeavors,” he wrote.

Donah was also proud of helping to oversee the development of the town of Tupper Lake Recreation Department and the marketing campaign with the Regional Office of Sustainable Tourism to boost tourism in Tupper Lake.

Gillis said he was running for reelection as a town Councilman, but did not plan on seeking the Republican Party nomination today. A registered Democrat, Gillis said he would instead seek the Democratic Party nomination at its caucuses, which are slated for July 15.

Gillis said he was proud of efforts to help the workforce housing stock in Tupper Lake through the Franklin County Land Bank, which he is also a board member of.

“Being on the town board and the land bank board is a bonus, just because we’re trying to cooperate as much as we can between the county, the town and the villages with the land bank,” he said. “We’re making progress, finally. It’s slow but we’re moving forward.”

Gillis also pointed to efforts to improve the infrastructure throughout the town, and said it all ties back to improving affordable housing options. Having operable water and sewer systems are often a make-or-break for the land bank as it considers which “ghost properties” it will focus its efforts on to rehabilitate and ultimately turn into workforce housing.

“Anything I can do on the infrastructure end through the town board, I’m happy to do because I know we need the infrastructure,” he said. “When we’re looking at housing around the county, looking at the foreclosure lists, (my first criterion is whether) there’s water and sewer because that’s so expensive to put in, and we’re trying to build affordable housing. We’re getting our feet wet this year and we’re going to try to scale it up.”

Adam Boudreau said Sunday that he intended to seek the Republican Party nomination for one of the town councilor positions.

“I just think that we need to really focus on jobs and housing in the area, and try to retain some of the young people,” he said. “I think it’s a great place to live. I want to be able to see my kids raise their families here and have the jobs and have the housing. I really think there’s a lot of potential growth there if we work with regional partners and make it a regional goal. I know there are already groups working on this, so I just want to join that conversation with the town board.”

Boudreau also said infrastructure improvements would be a key focus, and he wanted to leverage his knowledge and experience working with infrastructure-related issues and projects through his job as the President of Kentile Excavating.

“I want to be updating a lot of our current infrastructure, where we’re starting to see some problems and get everyone tuned in,” he said.

Owen Littlefield said Sunday that he intended to seek the Republican Party nomination for one of the town councilor positions.

“I’m a lifelong resident of Tupper Lake and feel that I’m at a point where I can bring value to the board to assist with keeping Tupper Lake a great place to live and raise a family,” he wrote.

This is not necessarily an exhaustive list of town candidates. It’s unclear if anyone else intends to seek the Republican Party nomination for open town government positions. Per caucus rules, nominations all take place “on the floor” this evening, meaning eligible candidates can change their plans up until that point.