On Nov. 3, voters in the town of DeWitt will get the opportunity to cast their ballots for the town supervisor, town clerk and three town councilor positions. Each race is contested. For town supervisor, incumbent Democrat Ed Michalenko running against Republic candidate Greg Scicchitano; for town clerk, incumbent Democrat Angela Epolito is running against Republican candidate Patricia MacCasland; for town council, incumbents Kerry Mannion and Karen Docter, both Democrats, are running for reelections in their seats. Current town board member Jack Dooling (D) is not seeking reelection. Three other candidates running for town board are Mike Durkin, a Republican, Dan Wagner, a Republican, and Sam Young, a Democrat. Currently, the seven-seat DeWitt Town Board is made up entirely of Democrat members.

The staff at the Eagle Bulletin feels that it is important for voters to be informed of their candidates when it comes to local elections. Candidates in each race were given identical questionnaires and asked to respond and return for publication in the paper prior to the election. Here are the responses from the candidates for the town supervisor race. Candidates and their responses are listed in alphabetical order.

Supervisor Candidates

Ed Michalenko

Party affiliation(s): Democrat, Working Families, Veterans

Political experience: Town council 11 years, supervisor for 7.5 years

Education: ESM 1975; A.S. Math/Science OCC 1977; B.S. Biology/Chemistry & Education (teacher cert: Bio, Chem, Earth Science, Math 7-12) Cortland State 1979; M.S. Environmental Communication & Education College ESF 1984; Ph.D. Soil Ecology ESF 1991

Family members: wife: Mary Ellen (Children’s hospital school teacher), Daughters: Elizabeth (Kevin) Dougherty (Westhill & Syracuse school teachers), Michelle (Andy) Blum (SU professor & Crouse-Hinds Engineer); Sons: Edward (NYC teacher), Alex (CXtec); five grandchildren

Work experience/Organizations involved with: I started my career and family as a high school Biology and Chemistry teacher at APW after loading trucks for UPS and working my way through undergraduate college. After gaining tenure, I entered graduate school, earned a master’s fellow, teaching assistantship and worked construction while performing research on the Solvay wastebeds along the shoreline of Onondaga Lake, thus obtaining my doctorate. Most of my professional career has centered on the environmental effects of chemicals. I co-authored five books, published over 40 technical papers and have performed research for the USEPA, Agency for Toxic Substance & Disease Registry, National Library of Medicine, Hazardous Substance Database, USGS, USFWS and NYSDEC. I also taught adjunct at SU & ESF. For the past 16 years, I have headed the non-profit Onondaga Environmental Institute dedicated to research, education, planning and restoration of the environment (oei2.org). I currently teach at LeMoyne College. My wife is the hospital school teacher and occasionally I tutor science to a student in medical crisis. I lector at Holy Cross Church, serve as the parish liaison on the Pope’s encyclical Laudato Si’ and coach CYO boys basketball.

How long have you lived in DeWitt? I am a lifelong resident. I was raised in Park Hill, have family in Parkwood, Franklin Park, East Syracuse and Jamesville, and reside in Orvilton.

Why do you believe voters should choose you as DeWitt Town Supervisor? I would ask voters to support me because all the decisions I have made over the years have been for the long term best interests of DeWitt residents. I have sought the best and brightest to work with me, and have promoted appointments based on qualifications not party politics. I have worked diligently in a bipartisan manner to open government to the public, stabilize the budget, and lead Central New York in green and sustainable initiatives. I have updated and will further develop the Town’s comprehensive plan that serves as a guideline for future development. I am studious in evaluation, results oriented in decision-making, consistent in my approach, relentless and steadfast until the job is complete. Once confronted with a challenge, I will see the problem through until it is resolved.

What do you believe are the top three issues that the town of DeWitt currently faces? Balancing oftentimes conflicting interests of future economic development with neighborhood and environmental protection: We face this issue constantly and in particular, with the inland port, the incinerator, ShoppingTown, Carrier Park and the many abandoned former industrial sites throughout the town. As business grows, so does traffic and an array of neighborhood impacts.

Maintaining a stable budget and at the same time generating the necessary revenue to maintain, rebuild and construct infrastructure needed to provide and improve our quality of life: Only about 15 percent of the property tax dollars collected by the town of DeWitt stay with the town, and about 75 percent is labor costs to provide police, courts, road maintenance, snowing plowing, water and the many office services including clerk, tax, assessors, planning and zoning, and parks and recreation. Very little monies are left to implement expensive projects that would improve our future.

Myopic thinking and political discourse: Performing duties and tasks the same way over and over because we have always done so seems to be a common occurrence in government despite changing times and changes in technology.

What would you do to address these issues? I will continue to advance a quality of life agenda through smart growth and implementation of the Comprehensive, Sustainability, Climate Action, Forest Management, and Parks and Recreation Master Plans established under my tenure as supervisor. I am a strong proponent that neighborhood and environmental protection leads to long term economic prosperity. I will continue to acquire parklands and greenspace, further implement progressive codes for neighborhood protection and business development and will extend our growing sidewalk, bike lane and trail network along Butternut Creek to Fiddlers Green. I have planted over 1000 trees, passed out hundreds of free rain barrels and am developing and looking forward to implementing a townwide flood management plan.

I will continue to spend your money wisely and efficiently. I have maintained a total annual budget growth less than 1.5 percent for seven years and have committed to maintaining the Governor’s 2 percent tax cap. I have supported projects and invested millions of dollars in infrastructure for attracting clean industries and high paying jobs such as Carrier Park, Upstate Bone & Joint Center, Byrne Dairy, Inficon and the Film House at Collamer Crossings. The economic activity from these investments will be orders of magnitude higher than the inputs. I am currently evaluating the prospects of increasing sewage treatment capacity that currently limits business growth and establishing a DeWitt electric utility, in addition to constructing a 2.2 MW solar farm on the DeWitt landfill.

I will continue to focus on real issues and promote civil discussion on topics affecting government efficiency. I have re-organized departments, upskilled staff, modernized, rebuilt financial systems, consolidated clerks, tax and supervisor’s offices; town and village police; and dog control with the SPCA. I look forward to discussions regarding fire protection services and establishing a fair and equitable system for all residents.

If elected, what would be your top priority as Supervisor? The health, safety and economic well being of Dewitt will always be my highest priority. There are many reasons and projects underway that I want to continue as Supervisor. Just a few include: maintaining fiscal responsibility; sustaining property values; preserving neighborhoods throughout the town and protecting the mill-town residential character of the Jamesville hamlet; completion of Carrier Park (which will generate over $2.5 million per year in economic activity); preparing for climate change and intense storms via re-naturalizing Ley and Butternut Creeks and implementing storm water control in flood prone areas; the redevelopment of ShoppingTown, numerous former industrial sites, Howard Johnsons, Glen Loch, Uncle Sams, and major business corridors along Malloy Rd, New Court St, Thompson Road, East Genesee Street, Erie Blvd; expanding Parks, greenspace, trails, sidewalks and bikelanes; providing alternate energy systems and travel networks for future generations; increasing recreation and senior programming as well as providing policies for aging in place for elderly residents. All of these and more have been acted upon in some form or another. I want to build, strengthen, and see many of these initiatives further advanced, recognizing that improving our community and future way of life should never be considered complete and finished.

Greg Scicchitano

Party affiliation(s): Registered Republican endorsed by the Republican, Independence, Conservative and Reform Parties

Political experience: Never held elected office. I ran for County Legislator in 1997 and was unsuccessful. I was DeWitt Town Attorney from September 2004 through December 2013 and was legal Counsel for Senator John DeFrancisco from December 1997 through July 2002.

Education: Bachelor of Arts – Management from Hartwick College 1987, Juris Doctor Widener University School of Law 1990.

Family members: Wife Cheri Scicchitano, daughter Carina Scicchitano, son Dominick Scicchitano, Step-son Sean Horan, Step-son Tate Horan

Work experience/Organizations involved with: Licensed to practice law in New York State since 1993 and have owned and operated my own law practice since that time. My law office is currently located at 6838 E. Genesee St., Fayetteville, New York. Was one of four founding members of Onondaga Youth Hockey.

How long have you lived in DeWitt? I moved to DeWitt in December of 1996.

Why do you believe voters should choose you as DeWitt Town Supervisor? I believe that the town needs new and fresh leadership that does not continue to foster and push the same old agenda year in and year out. The town of DeWitt is a tremendous place to live and raise a family and at the same time it has the potential to nurture and grow the business community in the areas that businesses belong. Such acceptance of business growth would increase the tax base in an era of dwindling taxable assets available to our community. Quality of life is an important factor for residents and a strong and vibrant tax base allows that quality of life to prosper. If elected, not only would I do everything to make DeWitt the most desirable place to raise a family and run a business, I would bring balance to the board and healthy, diverse debate, which is currently lacking.

What do you believe are the top three issues that the town of DeWitt currently faces?

1. Dwindling commercial tax base. ShoppingTown is an example of an absolute gem with tremendous upside and it does not seem anything is being done other than the Town and School District having to pay the property owner tax refunds for an over assessed piece of property. This property and others like it (Howard Johnsons in Carrier Circle) have to be addressed.
2. Public Safety. The Town of DeWitt Police Department is the busiest police department, except for the City of Syracuse and it is understaffed. It is time that the size of the force be looked at to be increased to help provide the necessary coverage in the village of East Syracuse and the rest of the town.
3. Business Environment. The town has an image of not being business friendly and the rumors out there dissuade people or entities from wanting to come to DeWitt. This needs to be rectified because the public services the town residents enjoy cannot be sustained without the dwindling tax base.

What would you do to address these issues? I would work with the town board to hopefully make them see that these issues are vital to the long term stability of our town. ShoppingTown can be developed into a thriving economic hub but it can only do so if the Town of DeWitt aggressively seeks a developer(s) to take this project and run with it. Towne Center, one-mile away, is an example of a developer and a town working together to address a demographic need. Why the town, for the last four years, believes that an underutilized and half vacant mall can still be assessed at 35 million dollars is absolutely illogical. Increasing the size of the police department should be looked at while taking the input of the residents into consideration especially the residents of the village of East Syracuse. The concerns of the residents should be the driving force to determine what the police department needs to be able to provide the service that the residents are ultimately paying for. If the town is to become business friendly, the process has to change. I have heard countless complaints that the process to do anything in the town is a nightmare. That has to change.

If elected, what would be your top priority as Supervisor? Addressing all of the above.