BY CRAIG FREILICH
North Country This Week

POTSDAM – Three town of Potsdam Democrats will be in a primary contest June 25 to decide which of them will be on the November ballot for two Town Council seats.

Not in the primary but running in November is Democrat Ann Carvill, a town councilor appointed to the supervisor’s spot after Supervisor Rollin Beattie’s death a little over a year ago, does not appear to be opposed for the position.

Carvill won the supervisor’s position in a special election last November to fill out Beattie’s term. Councilor Toni Kennedy of Potsdam, the newest member of the board, won the right to run last November for the remainder of Carvill’s councilor’s seat after prevailing in a primary last year against James Grant, who had been appointed to Carvill’s seat until last November’s election. Now that that term is ending, Kennedy is running for a whole new term.

The other board seat up for grabs is that of Councilor Rose Rivezzi, who is not running again.

Kennedy is joined in the primary by Marty Miller of Norwood and Keith D. Mitchell of Buck’s Bridge. Last November, she beat Larry Colbert of Norwood, a Republican who is also running again this year.

Toni Kennedy

Kennedy, a registered nurse, is joined in the Democratic primary for the two available ballot slots by Marty Miller of Norwood, a county highway department supervisor, and Keith D. Mitchell of Brown’s Bridge, who works in Malone for the Independent Living Center.

Kennedy has some firm ideas about what she wants to do for the town.

“My enthusiasm for Potsdam is as strong as ever. I have had the privilege of working with neighbors, community organizers, and other board members on a wide variety of issues that are important to the residents of the Town of Potsdam,” she said in her campaign statement.

“I am asking for your vote in the primary on June 25th because I care about our community. I work as a Registered Nurse, my children attend Potsdam Central School where I serve as an officer for the Parent Teacher Student Association and serve as the Advocacy Chair in the Leatherstocking Region for PTA,” she said.

“In my initial campaign in 2018, my main platform was based around the climate crisis. During my term thus far, I have been heavily focused on that issue,” she said. She notes that she serves on the town board’s Climate Smart Communities Task Force, and as a member of the task force’s Development Subcommittee. And she has been the liaison between town government and the state as the town’s Climate Smart Communities Coordinator.

“I have also been very active in our community with grassroots organizing efforts for issues like the Green New Deal where I organized a town hall on May 29th that had over 80 attendees from the community.”

She is also active with Sunrise Movement, having created a local hub for them, an organization of “young people to stop climate change and create millions of good jobs in the process,” their web site says. And she says she is “an outspoken supporter for the Trial of the Century – Juliana v United States,” a suit working its way through federal courts brought by young people who assert that government policies on environmental matters are harming their rights by not making reduction of greenhouse gas emissions a priority.

“I have been very clear that environmental justice is a human rights issue and have been doing all that I can on a local level to ensure that Potsdam is a model for sustainability and resiliency,” Kennedy said.

Other issues of import to her are “promoting civic engagement, bolstering the local economy through green initiatives and infrastructure, and expanding recreational opportunities for residents of all ages.

“I believe governments – local, state, and national -- should be transparent, responsive, and welcoming to public participation. I have been advocating on all levels of government for campaign finance reform to ensure that elected officials are accountable and representative of their constituents.”

She said she is “running for re-election because community involvement is something I value deeply and I am committed to continuing the work I am doing to better our community.”

Marty Miller

Marty Miller of Norwood has ideas to share on infrastructure improvements, tax exempt property, and clarifying the roles of the Village of Norwood and the Town of Potsdam.

He has intimate knowledge of roads, bridges and the like as a supervisor with the St. Lawrence County Highway Department. Before that he was a supervisor with building contractors.

Balancing budgets is not easy, he said, and isn’t likely to get easier any time soon.

“I’m not really for ‘I-90.’ I’m interested in existing infrastructure.” Putting off maintenance of roads and bridges is a mistake that’s all too easy for municipalities to make in challenging economic times, he said.

“I see it coming down the pike: we cannot rely anymore on all these state-funded projects. CHIPS (road maintenance money from the state) is going away.” One answer could be going line by line through a budget to see if money can be shifted to urgent needs.

He sees infrastructure maintenance as a basic issue for a local economy.

“You just can’t let it go. How do you bring prospective companies here and open up shop? It’s a selling point. How can we say we’re open for business when things are deteriorating? You can see it.”

He thinks promoting small farms is one way to improve the business picture here, emphasizing the community benefit in local ownership and control. “Any small business is a good business,” he said.

Miller is a proponent of clean energy, but he’s disappointed by the local response to the issue. “I thought there would be more here by now,” he said.

He said Clarkson University’s development of a solar generation site is good, but wonders why there aren’t more developments along those lines through town and village government. “We need to be in the programs with these universities. We need go be working with them” on projects such as the little windmills he heard Clarkson was developing. “We can be a guinea pig. Why not if it could save some money and it’s good for the environment?”

He would like to see better definition between what the town and the Village of Norwood are spending on things like recreation. He said some residents wonder if they’re being “double-billed” for some programs. “What are my taxes going for? People have questions. I do. Are village taxes going for the same thing? We should define it so people understand better.”

Miler thinks it’s time to consider some alternatives to granting blanket tax-exempt status to the institutions that get them now. He doesn’t want to diminish the contributions the colleges bring to the community, but he wants to see a discussion of the issue, on things like a cap on exemptions or formal PILOTS.

“The amount of tax-exempt property is ungodly. I’d like to see some kind of cap. I don’t even know if that’s possible. Would we have to go knocking on doors in Albany? We should look into it.”

He said he also wants to take the time to look into how things are working out for villages that have dissolved their governments. “Are they actually saving money?”

“I just hope people get out and vote. Pick the one you feel can do the best for the Town of Potsdam and the Village of Norwood.”

Keith D. Mitchell

Keith D. Mitchell is a 31-year-old activist with a master’s degree in social work and bachelor’s in psychology. He lives at the western edge of the township, around Buck’s Bridge.

He was born in the town and raised on his family’s farm. He describes himself as a lifelong progressive who became more engaged in politics with the campaign of Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont in the 2016 campaign for president.

He works in home health care for the Independent Living Center based in Malone, formerly in Massena.

“I have a special interest in the health and well-being of the citizens of Potsdam. I have worked for non-profits in the area and I have seen just how underserved some members of my community are,” said Mitchell in the announcement of his candidacy in March.

He said he has gone door-to-door seeking opinions on issues including pothole complaints to not being able to afford their rent or find a good job in the area.

“I’ve met people who don’t know how to navigate the social services system, and in other cases, folks who do not know how to transition out of it,” he said. “We need to bring more economic opportunity into the area and better infrastructure to give our citizens an incentive to stay to raise their family in Potsdam.”

“I would like to see increased North Country connectivity to the rest of the U.S.,” with broadband expansion comparable to building out the interstate highway system. He notes there are still pockets without high-speed access.

“I’m interested in hearing what the residents of the town think – what they think should be heard,” he said.

The county Board of Elections will have all Town of Potsdam polling places open for the primary vote.

The polling site for Election Districts 1 and 2 is new. Voters in those districts who used to vote at Hospice will now vote at Potsdam Amvets Post 282, 6771 US Highway 11.

Other polling places in the township are, for Districts 3 and 8, the Norwood Municipal Building, 11 S. Main St.; Districts 4, 6 and 7, Potsdam Town Hall, 18 Elm St.; and District 5, Potsdam High School, 29 Leroy St.