Republicans Bring Nothing To The Table

Saugerties Democratic Committee News
By Mike Harkavy


Republicans Bring Nothing To The Table
The Republican Committee is rehashing, over and over again, the same tired talking points in their columns (Saugerties Times, March 26, 2009). They still complain about a unified town board as being a problem rather than an example of non-partisan government. What is most apparent is that they don’t offer any new ideas or programs to promote the growth of Saugerties and the welfare of its residents and businesses.

These are serious times, while the Republicans sit and complain, trapped in outdated political sniping; our current town board has a long list of accomplishments. Here are just a few:

• The Kings Highway Enterprise Corridor water/sewer project in on track and the Generic Environmental Impact Statement is near completion that will streamline the approval process for new businesses that want to locate in the corridor.
• They have partnered with the Saugerties Area Chamber of Commerce to produce the Discover Saugerties 2009 brochure funded jointly with the Town Economic Development Committee
• Supervisor Helsmoortel coordinated state, county and community groups, as well as the owners of the Winston Farm to market and develop a land management plan for the property.
• Revised the Ethics Law in 2007 and put an Ethics Board in place
• Passed the Right to Farm Law in recognition of farming as important to the tradition, character and well being of our community.
• Completed the Glasco riverfront mini-park with hundreds of thousands of dollars from the state and other agencies
• Supervisor Helsmoortel convened the Green Energy Task Force which has produced a cable access show “Go Green, Save Green” providing energy tips for the community. They held a forum for building contractors highlighting education and employment opportunities in the fields of alternative energy and conservation.
• Continued improvement and growing community usage of the Kiwanis Ice Arena and on and on.


I do have to take some time to respond to untrue accusations by the Republican Committee against the Saugerties Democratic Party.

“Greg Helsmoortel is one of the biggest contributors to the Saugerties Democratic Party”.
Untrue. Greg sent a check to the Saugerties Democratic Party to be passed through to “Team Saugerties”, the election committee representing Greg and the town board candidates. The Democratic Party did not get a dime from this transaction

“The Saugerties Democratic Party has a history of punishing those who stray from the party line. A few years ago, Saugerties Dems held a trial and kicked several people off of their committee”.
Wrong. The Ulster County Democratic Committee was petitioned and held a hearing because 11 elected Saugerties Committee members created another party line, “The Jobs First Party”. While maintaining their Democratic Party committee membership, they chose to support candidates from another political party against the nominated Democratic candidates. The hearing found them guilty of disloyalty and they left the committee.

“…The Saugerties Dems asked an “Independence Party” candidate they backed to give up the Conservative Party endorsement, he listened”.
Wrong again. All our candidates, running as a team, agreed in advance, because of differences in core values not to seek the Conservative Party endorsement. This candidate fully understood, but a proud family member put his name up and low and behold he won. He thanked the Conservative Party and declined the endorsement voluntarily.

The Saugerties Democratic Party will continue to support good government .We welcome an issue-oriented debate with the Republicans and are proud to support the record of accomplishment of our supervisor and town board members as well as our majority in the Ulster County Legislature.