WADDINGTON – The Catskill Mountain town of Roscoe has jumped out in the lead ahead of Waddington in the final round of voting for the “Ultimate Fishing Town USA.”

As of Wednesday afternoon, after the first full day of final-round voting, Roscoe had more than 5,300 votes to Waddington’s 4,300 votes – tops among all contenders across the country so far.

World Fishing Network’s online contest will award $25,000 top prize to the winning town and a promotional TV spot.

“After less than a day of voting, they are already beating us by nearly 1,000 votes!”, said Alicia Murphy of the Waddington Chamber of Commerce, in an expression of concern but not worry.

“We need to step up our voting,” Murphy said, and offered people help in getting their allowable four votes a day per person into the contest.

“If you, or someone you know, is unable to vote –whether during a particular time period, or for the whole contest -- let us do it for you,” Murphy offered.

In a perfectly permissible option, Murphy says, “We will get your proxy permission and take over your voting for you. Also, spread the word, get your kids involved, and consider registering additional email addresses with which to vote.”

“We’ve worked too hard to lose this now!”, she said.

Murphy would also like to see lots of people out along the St. Lawrence REiver in Waddington Sunday from 2 to 5 p.m. for a Rally on the River in Island View Park.

People can log on to WorldFishingNetwork.com to vote between midnight and 6 a.m., again 6 a.m. to noon, again noon to 6 p.m., and again between 6 p.m. and midnight, and they can do that every day that voting is open, through May 31.

The winners will be announced no later than June 6.

Visit WorldFishingNetwork.com for more details.