ROBIN ANDREWS

[My decision] also fell on the heels of Jim Keegan’s insistent support of the county purchasing the Ockwamick School building in Claverack to move DSS there. I was disheartened by his lack of clear response to the outcry against it. It was not clear why he thought this would be of real benefit, and what might need to be done to mitigate people’s concerns.  And then suddenly recently, he has changed his mind—saying that DSS should not move to Claverack now—and yet he has not offered any proactive solutions as to what the county should do now with a $1.5 million building they own, which took $3.5 million off the Claverack tax rolls, and still needs $15 million in renovations. Since my decision to run, it is only clearer to me how important it is to give Claverack residents a choice. A choice to continue the inactive, unresponsive, status quo management of the current board, or to try something new.

Overall, there are many reasons why I am running. Claverack needs someone who is attentive and who will stand up for them and ask hard questions. The town has become stagnant. We need to proactively keep up with the advances that are happening around us and integrate that with the desire to maintain the feeling of a rural community. With the path we are currently on, the danger is that we will lose everything—the sense of rural community and our ability to maintain our lifestyles. I feel I can make a difference and I find that I enjoy this work. What I love about it is the creative problem solving of integrating various viewpoints to find common ground and create solutions that are for the benefit of everyone. I also love the opportunities to do analysis that is number/fiscally-oriented as well as benefit driven. As a magazine publishing budgeting consultant and software trainer, my job is to not only empower people to do their jobs most effectively, but also to find ways to use the tools available to enable accurate analysis and to understand the dynamics of cause and effect to understand the key leverage points. I find that orientation to people and problem solving can be very helpful in the work I have done in local government.  

Specific issues I am concerned about and will seek solutions to if I am elected:

• Poor decision making. We have a wealth of resources in the town and county—people who want to add their expertise and voice to the problems facing us. We need to draw on those resources as appropriate and whatever issues are being looked into, we need to make sure all the key stakeholders are involved and at the table. Only then can we arrive at the best all-around solutions. This lack of process has been clearly evident with the handling of the purchase of Ockawamick, the possible move of Pine Haven, and the idea of purchasing Saint Charles for indigent housing.
• A shrinking tax base. We need to focus on economic development that will strengthen the tax base. We need to make sure we have the infrastructure to make our area attractive to businesses—which would include broadband, looking at water/sewer, and working with planning and zoning boards to make the process as business friendly as we can. Without a commercial tax base to support us, we will be increasingly burdened with rising costs with no offset.
• Communication, efficiency and effectiveness. We need to be using the technological tools of today. At a very minimum in the town: The website needs to be updated so that is more user-friendly and incorporates more information. We can use listservs and email more effectively to communicate information to the community. We need to move away from paper-only access to information and use the effective, and often inexpensive, office programs available for more efficient work in the offices. We are so far behind in using these tools, that we have to start with these basics. Once these are in place, there’s no limit to where we might be able to go.
• Concern about a disappearing sense of community. If we continue to do nothing, we will lose the reason that most of us have stayed here, or came here for. We need to ensure people can and want to continue to live and work here. There are many layers to this. It means providing the services that enable us to function in today’s world, such as broadband, so that people can enjoy being here and continue their work. And to enjoy being in a rural community, we need to focus on creating areas where people gather, such as a town hall, and take advantage of our beauty and community centers with areas to be outside and to walk. We need to work to balance the ability to preserve our open farmland, offering farmers sustainable livings and creating the economic growth we need.
• Enacting the Claverack Comprehensive Plan. The Comprehensive Plan was adopted by the town two years ago, and provides a clear outline of what the community wants and needs are. Input was diligently gathered from all segments of the community and much hard work and compromise was done to find things everyone could agree on—and yet not much is happening to move it forward. A zoning committee was set up to create the new zoning guidelines outlined in the plan, but they have been struggling along without the benefit of much expert advice— and it’s a large job. But one of the other main strategies in the plan was to designate committees to work on specific aspects, and yet none of them have even been set up. It is important that we keep working on moving ahead on what has already been determined through a lot of effort. 

 Robin Andrews' website: robinandrews.org