In the town of Van Buren, there is one candidate running for town supervisor, four candidates running for three seats on the town board, one candidate running for town justice and one candidate running for highway superintendent. Two candidates are running for the 13th District of the Onondaga County Legislature, which encompasses the towns of Camillus, Elbridge and Van Buren.
The 2021 general election is Tuesday, Nov. 2. For information about polling places and early voting, visit ongov.net/elections or contact the Onondaga County Board of Elections at 315-435-8683.
Read on to meet the candidates (listed alphabetically and arranged by office).
Town councilor (vote for 3)
Ronald Dudzinski (incumbent)
Republican, Conservative
Dudzinski works for the Onondaga County Department of Transportation. Learn more by adding him on Facebook.
How will your experience serve you in government?
I want to continue to apply the many things I’ve learned and experienced in my past years of local government. By applying this background to both current and ongoing projects and issues that come before the board, I have found that this background/foundation is an excellent starting off point to not only use past experiences to guide me, but also to grow and adapt to the many changes we all face.
What do you think are the biggest challenges in your community?
- Learning new ways to control spending within town government
- Taxes
- Continuing to work with local taxpayers to determine their concerns and any issues that may arise.
What are your ideas for addressing these challenges?
- By utilizing grants, shared services and better, more efficient and less costly ways of doing business.
- Stay underneath the tax cap by promoting good fiscal spending.
- I am inviting all residents to please attend town board meetings to bring us your issues and concerns.
Michael Hulchanski
Republican, Conservative, Independence
Hulchanski is a principal probation officer.
How will your experience serve you in government?
I have worked in criminal justice helping people change their lives for nearly 30 years. I have learned how to recognize potential and to bring out the good in people. I have also seen what can happen to a community if there is nothing to counterbalance the negative influences. I’ve been involved as an adult leader with Boy Scouts for more than a decade and I understand the positivity that exists in most people. I hope to use my experience to work with the town board so that the community of Van Buren can achieve its potential.
What do you think are the biggest challenges in your community?
I believe communication is the key to solving most problems. Van Buren is a mix of residential and commercial properties, neighborhoods and farms. Maintaining a healthy balance, helping people understand all sides of an issue, and keeping everyone informed of decisions and outcomes is the most significant challenge I see. Holding on to our small town feel while encouraging growth will always be a struggle. Change is not always easy. But when it becomes necessary, we need a strong board that can help guide us through the process.
What are your ideas for addressing these challenges?
I would like to encourage the community to attend town board meetings and to get involved. Open meetings for important decisions will go a long way towards earning the trust of the people. Positive conversations and making informed, proper decisions, will help keep our community safe, emotionally healthy, and prosperous. Strong, decisive leadership, working with others, and bringing out the best in people will enable our community to face all challenges head on. Together everyone achieves more.
Darcie Lesniak (incumbent)
Republican, Independence
Lesniak is a director for the Onondaga County Legislature.
How will your experience serve you in government?
I believe I bring a range of municipal knowledge and passion to the Van Buren Town Board. I have spent the past 15 years working on staff at the town and county level. I am a proud fiscal conservative, and I want to ensure that our local government is as cost-effective as possible.
What do you think are the biggest challenges in your community?
The growing cost of government is definitely one of the biggest challenges facing all communities. Providing the services and programs that residents want while balancing the cost of those benefits. There are services that need to be prioritized like road work and plowing, but there is also a real desire for feedback from town residents on the menu of services that we want in our town.
What are your ideas for addressing these challenges?
The town has to manage our growth to control the overall cost, but, to continue the level of service residents have come to appreciate, we need to find new sources of revenue. The current board is working to bring commercial properties to our industrially zoned areas, this will increase our tax revenues substantially and ensure the financial stability for our future.
Conner Pringle
Democratic
Pringle is a dispatcher. Visit facebook.com/ConnerPPringle to learn more.
How will your experience serve you in government?
Aside from work experience, I feel that the greatest asset that I can provide to this position is my experience with living in Van Buren. I have lived here for my entire life, and I feel that I have the familiarity of the area that is needed to allow me to represent my community in a way that will do the most good and keep the most people happy.
What do you think are the biggest challenges in your community?
I feel that one of the greatest improvements that can be made to our town is increased accessibility for the people who live here. People are incredibly busy, and any energy that a person has to spare for focusing on government is spent on larger state and national issues.
Local government goes largely unnoticed because of this, and I think we can change that without interrupting their schedules. Busy people need an easier way to participate in their local government and stay aware of issues present in their town.
What are your ideas for addressing these challenges?
To address the issue of accessibility, I would like to make any and all aspects of our town government easier to access and keep up with for the people who live here. We have the technology available to allow people to attend town hall meetings virtually, so that people who can’t attend in person can still participate live and interact with their representatives. That currently isn’t an option, which I feel unnecessarily excludes many of our residents from participating. I also feel that we can better utilize text messaging, social media, and email to keep residents better informed of different events that they may decide are important to them. For example, people who are interested in art should be able to more easily get updated on art-related events and news in our town.
Town supervisor
Mary Frances Sabin
Republican, Conservative, Independence
Sabin is a customer service representative and current town councilor/deputy supervisor.
How will your experience serve you in government?
I was re-elected two years ago and am in my third year serving as the deputy supervisor. During my time on the town board, I have been either the chair or on the following committees: personnel, land use and cable TV. I also have 20 years of management experience dealing with budgets and personnel in the private sector.
What do you think are the biggest challenges in your community?
The biggest challenges facing the town are maintaining a stable tax rate and controlling the development in the town.
What are your ideas for addressing these challenges?
The way to maintain stable taxes is by watching all expenses and by increasing the tax base. I will be working with the county’s industrial/economic development departments to highlight existing available properties.
Highway superintendent
Doug Foster (incumbent, running unopposed)
Republican, Independence
How will your experience serve you in government?
I believe that drawing on my previous experiences in addition to completing my 10th year serving as highway superintendent, I can effectively manage the department. The current employees working there have had an outstanding year — completing a large number of projects. With the combined efforts of an excellent workforce and my desire to serve the community, I believe the highway department will continue to provide outstanding service to Van Buren residents.
What do you think are the biggest challenges in your community?
While there are many challenges that any town may face, I believe the highway department has several that pertain to its operations. One of the largest challenges is going to come down to money. The equipment to handle snow operations is rising at an unprecedented rate.
Fortunately, to date the town has managed to keep equipment updated and purchase enough salt while maintaining a steady tax rate. An additional challenge that just arose recently for some towns is manpower. The town of Van Buren is fortunate that its current workforce has proven to be a hardworking and conscientious crew.
What are your ideas for addressing these challenges?
As the costs I mentioned keep climbing it becomes essential to try to maintain the current fleet to a high level. With our new highway facility, we can now better wash the vehicles and perform maintenance. Replacement schedules need to be reviewed and looked at further ahead due to both the costs and the unheard of time delays for trucks being built and delivered. I plan to continue to work with the town board to coordinate purchase schedules. The highway department employees and I will continue to work together to evaluate and modify plow routes as necessary to ensure residents satisfaction and safety. Additionally, construction season costs will continue to be monitored to ensure that the town is getting the most out of the money that is allotted.
Justice
Jay Plumley
Republican, Conservative, Independence
Plumley is an attorney.
How will your experience serve you in government?
From a young age, I watched my grandfather dedicate his life to public service, and developed a great interest in one day serving my community. I pursued my passion for the law, which afforded me 10 years of diverse legal experience as an attorney in private practice. I have had the opportunity to advocate for individuals, estates, businesses, nonprofits and municipalities, including prosecution at the local level. Now, with a family of my own, the opportunity to serve my community as Van Buren’s town justice marries my love of the law with my longing to serve the public.
What do you think are the biggest challenges in your community?
A portion of our community, as with so many others, is faced with both familiar and unprecedented challenges. Between the ongoing COVID pandemic and increased social and economic difficulties, we find individuals, family members, and neighbors struggling with job security, substance abuse, and mental health issues. Many of the individuals struggling find themselves navigating our judicial system, where it is incumbent upon the town justice to administer fair and impartial justice. These extraordinary times warrant a thorough review of each case before the court in order to understand the root cause of the offense. To encourage community, and growth thereof, the town justice should invest in the individual and inspire positive development while steadfastly and unwaveringly maintaining a safe and secure community.
What are your ideas for addressing these challenges?
While the Van Buren community cannot suffer a soft stance on crime, one goal of any judicial system should be rehabilitation. The court should ensure that individuals before it understand the gravity of the offense they are being charged with, the nature of its impact, and the subsequent consequences. My goal is to use every tool at the court’s disposal to support our community, and the safety of our families, friends and neighbors.
Onondaga County Legislature: District 13
Ken Bush Jr. (incumbent)
Republican, Conservative
Bush is a funeral director. Follow “Ken Bush Jr. Onondaga County Legislator-13th District” on Facebook to learn more.
How will your experience serve you in government?
Having previously served as a town councilor and town supervisor and now as a county legislator I have gained the knowledge and experience needed to help people. Also, my work with the Onondaga County Soil and Water Conservation District Board, the County Fisheries Advisory Board, and the DEC Region 7 Fish and Wildlife Management Advisory Board shows I have a great appreciation for issues relating to the environment.
What do you think are the biggest challenges in your community?
One of the biggest challenges facing the 13th District is job opportunities. I am encouraged by the fact that economic growth in the county appears to be headed in the right direction. However, the issues surrounding I-81 and its removal if that happens will impact us. Public safety is a concern and I am a strong supporter of local policing and having community police departments. Costs relating to government operations are always a challenge and fortunately at the county level the property tax rate has not increased in recent years. Public transportation has become an issue with Centro scaling back its bus service.
What are your ideas for addressing these challenges?
As to economic development, the towns and county need to work together to establish suitable sites for job growth throughout the county and to provide the necessary infrastructure. Proper zoning should be a top priority. Controlling government costs is always a challenge and each major spending decision needs to be considered in light of the long term costs. Inflation is going to be an issue for the taxpayer and government alike. Sales tax revenues are a major funding source to operate county government and if the economy improves it will help increase the sales tax collections. Funding from the state should increase and that will help Centro add back recently discontinued bus routes.
The Messenger did not receive a response from Democratic candidate Sara Aaserud.
