Craig Donaldson, Doug Haney, Tracey Schrader, Johnny Williams
(Enterprise photos — Aaron Marbone)

SARANAC LAKE — There are four candidates running to serve on the Harrietstown council — two on the Democratic line and two on the Republican line — but there’s only two seats on the Nov. 4 ballot.

The candidates differ on some issues. They have similar goals, but different ideas about how to reach them, and even disagreements on how the town should be run.

Incumbents Johnny Williams and Tracey Schrader are running for reelection. Doug Haney and Craig Donaldson are also running to serve on the board. Schrader and Haney are running on the Democratic line. Williams and Donaldson are running on the Republican line. They are running for four-year terms.

The Enterprise asked all of them for their opinions on issues like taxation, housing and the town-owned airport.

Earlier this month, a third seat opened up after Councilwoman Ashley Milne resigned half-way through her term. This seat won’t be on the ballot and it’s up to the council to appoint a new member. When this appointment will be made, and how to make that decision, are being debated. To read more about this, go to tinyurl.com/27eydwzh.

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Donaldson

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Donaldson said he’s running because he sees “wasteful spending” in the town that he wants to address. He was the town’s highway superintendent for 35 years and worked for the town for 38 years.

As the highway superintendent, he’s gone through a lot of budgets. He feels the town spends too much money on things they want, rather than what they need — buying new trucks before they’re needed or proposing raises for elected officials. All these things raise taxes, he said.

“It’s nice to have all this new stuff. It’s nice to have all these things. But it’s not nice when you can’t afford to pay your own bills,” Donaldson said.

People who own houses that are bought and paid for risk losing their homes because they can’t keep up with taxes. People’s incomes are not keeping pace with government spending increases, he said.

He feels the town has lost sight of who they work for.

Donaldson said he would like to include a survey with the town’s annual tax bill mailing. This survey would include a list of town services and respondents could list them in order of their priorities. He said this would give the board an idea of what people here want.

“They’ve never asked for input,” Donaldson said. “And hardly anybody ever shows up at a budget meeting. But after the fact people are complaining.”

The airport should be on the survey, he said.

“I don’t think the town should be in the airport business,” Donaldson said.

He’d prefer if the airport was owned and operated by the county, to spread the cost burden out over a wider area.

The airport takes a lot of taxpayer money to run — through local taxes and its federal flight subsidy — but Donaldson feels that not a lot of people use it.

“How many people, taxpayers, in Harrietstown use that in a year?” he asked.

Donaldson resigned unexpectedly from his position mid-term in 2019. He said he left under “crappy” circumstances — politics, arguments, stress and frustration with the council and his employees. His daughter had urged him to retire for his health. He works part-time for town of Franklin highway department now.

Recently, his other daughter — whose husband works for the highway department — asked him to run for town council.

“It’s hard to say ‘no’ to your daughters,” Donaldson said.

He feels the highway department needs to be improved. It’s not run the same way as when he was superintendent, he said, and he sees inefficiencies.

He didn’t like that the town used its coronavirus pandemic-era federal aid toward raises for town employees. He said, after the federal aid ran out, the town had to absorb the costs.

Doing percentage raises for employees across the board is not fair, he feels. It benefits higher earners more, and doesn’t do much for people earning lower wages.

He’d like the town to offer tax breaks for people of a certain age. He thinks the town should probably provide the service of the Saranac Lake Volunteer Fire Department instead of the village, since it pays the most of any of the towns or villages for the contract.

Donaldson said he’d voice his opinion, which he doesn’t think will make him popular on the board, but that he’d work for mutual respect with the other council members.

“I would hope that I could present it without hurting feelings,” he said.

Donaldson said if a two term limit is good enough for the president, it should be good enough for any office.

“It’s not a career, it’s an elected position,” he said.

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Haney

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Haney said the town’s role is to take care of the community — those who live here and those who don’t yet. He said the region needs young families, but young families usually don’t move here for one of three reasons — they can’t find an affordable place to live, a job paying a wage to afford a place to live or affordable child care.

He wants to join the town council because he sees lots of opportunity to move housing initiatives forward. He’s very focused on affordable housing.

“I want to be a part of making those solutions happen,” Haney said.

Attending a couple of the council’s housing committee meetings contributed to his decision to run.

In his previous career, he worked in communications for the U.S. Ski and Snowboard teams for more than a decade. Now, he runs two local businesses — the GreatRange marketing and communications firm and the BikeADK biking event company.

“I’m a planner,” he said.

His work takes being analytical, coordinated and having the ability to bring many people together to work on one cause.

Housing solutions will take having an idea, and then getting a group of people from multiple levels of government and business to work on it. Right now, he said every town is doing something about housing, but mostly little things. He wants to get them all together to do big things.

“Nothing’s going to happen fast. Good planning doesn’t,” Haney said.

His goal is to put the town in a place where they’re not still dealing with this problem 20 years from now.

Haney said increasing the housing stock will also provide relief to taxpayers.

“When you add new properties to a tax base, you spread the burden,” Haney said. “Unless you find ways to increase tax base, you’re always going to be increasing burden.”

Currently, he said the town’s tax base is shrinking.

There’s a lot of people who would love to live here but cannot, he said. At a meet-the-candidates event earlier this month, he spoke with a recent Paul Smith’s College graduate who told him they knew of at least two dozen fellow Smitties who wanted to stay in the region, but could not.

Young people want to make a life here, and Haney said it’s the town’s responsibility to provide them the tools and resources to be able to.

Local projects to build apartments are great, he said, but eventually these people will want to buy a home.

Haney’s budget goals are to never go over the tax cap, to decrease the tax burden and to plan for the future.

Haney said the town needs a strong long-term financial and infrastructure plan. Things break, and he said it’s better to have a schedule to maintain or replace infrastructure than to have it be an emergency every time. Nothing irritates him more than a municipality suddenly saying they need millions of dollars for a sudden infrastructure project that they could have been saving for and getting grants for years. The state tends to support towns with good planning with more grants.

He feels Supervisor Jordanna Mallach is already doing a good job of planning for the future and he wants to help make that plan.

To Haney, the airport is like the Whiteface ski area — an asset for the whole region that needs regular investment, or it loses its potential.

Haney has attended many village board meetings in recent years to ask that board to reconsider its plans for a combined public safety building at 33 Petrova Ave. He feels this is an example of a government failing its departments by letting them crumble with no long-term plan. He said the 15-acre Petrova Avenue property is unique and to not consider it for housing is “short-sighted.”

The town has a contract with the fire department, and he said the council can use that contract to negotiate with the village to get an outcome he believes would benefit more community members.

Haney feels the Harrietstown board is a strong team.

He describes himself as a “team player” — someone who knows his strengths and seeks out the strengths in others. He also said he’s a listener who likes friendly disagreements. Debate in local government is not about winning, but honing an idea, he said.

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Schrader

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Schrader said she’s running for a third term because there are lots of projects in the works she wants to see come to a close.

The $8.5 million town airport terminal renovation project just recently broke ground, she’s been working with the council on selling more parcels at the town business park, upgrading the municipal parks with playground, bike parks and signage.

Schrader said it feels good to do something productive, to make a difference and to have the deep discussions the council does.

Schrader said she’s cautious of the taxpayer’s dollars while providing as much as the town can.

“As a Democrat, I would like Republicans to know that I am sitting here watching the budget and not spending money,” she said. “I know people find it hard that a Democrat will say that.”

She has run a business for 30 years, so she said she understands budgeting. The town coffers are not just a pot to dip into, she said.

It’s hard to say no to organizations who ask the town for financial support, but if providing that would put the budget over the tax cap, she said she won’t support it because it’s not what’s best for the taxpayers.

She’s proud of the town’s budgeting and praised town Accountant Beth Bevilacqua and Mallach for their work on the budget before it comes to the board.

“I feel they’ve done an amazing job at keeping the taxes down, because it’s really hard in this environment, especially with health insurance and pensions,” Schrader said, adding that the rising costs for the town are “out of their control,” but that they’ve been able to continue providing services without going over the state-imposed tax cap.

The council goes through the budget line-by-line, she said.

Schrader said, on the council, she holds people accountable for their decisions — including herself.

“I stand by my convictions,” she said.

Before the town council, she served on the school board for a while. With her years of experience on boards, she said she knows how things work.

“I do joke. I say I’m the old lady on the board now,” Schrader said with a laugh.

She’s lived in town for 37 years now, and said she chose Harrietstown as her home, after growing up in Long Lake.

When it comes to increasing affordable housing, Schrader said her background as a builder lets her know exactly how complex the issue is. One of the biggest issues is that builders have no control over material prices.

She and her husband built their home from the ground-up. But land then was at a price which is “out of reach” now. They’re currently building a home in Santa Clara with their son and daughter-in-law and coming into these funding problems first-hand.

Schrader said there’s been so many housing committees with little progress, but they’re still trying to find an unturned stone.

The town has talked about organizing a housing forum to get people together to talk about solutions.

Schrader is on the board-adjacent DOT committee spearheaded by Councilman Jeremy Evans, working with the Department of Transportation on improving walkways in town.

They’re trying to get a sidewalk from the Algonquin Apartments into town, for kids to safely walk to school; a crosswalk with warning signs between Adirondack Medical Center and Lake Colby for people to cross from the hospital to the beach, and to get traffic to slow down there; to extend the sidewalk on Ampersand Avenue to Schroeter’s Field where youth sports are played and to install better signage warning motorists of hikers crossing the busy and fast state Route 3 to reach the Ampersand Mountain trailhead. Schrader drives this route to work every day and said she’s seen skid marks on the road there too often.

Schrader said she’s an “open book” and that if any taxpayers ever have any questions, concerns or thoughts on town actions, they can talk to her and she’ll give them her thoughts.

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Williams

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Williams is seeking a second term and said, now that he has his “sea legs” on the board, he’s enjoying the tough work.

“There’s something that feels good about making hard decisions that you believe in. You don’t get to do that every day,” he said. “I have some work that’s only just begun.”

Williams said his motto on the board is “Bring solutions, not problems.”

Bringing solutions the right way is also important. He said he always reads the board’s agenda before their meetings, to develop ideas and thoughts on their decisions beforehand, to have time to call people with questions or concerns before the meeting and to not blindside people with new ideas.

The council doesn’t always agree, but the way they reach decisions is a process he’s proud of.

Williams is registered as an independent and feels he fills that role on the board.

“I decided at the end of year one that if I could sleep well at night with the decisions I made I was OK with creating a little bit of static on the board,” he said. “Some of the things that you decide or discuss on the board level are going to piss off the person next to you. If you’re not willing to do that then you’re not doing your job and you’re not upholding your commitment to the community that you’re serving.”

He said he thinks about the decisions they make at meetings long before and after the vote.

The board recently had a tough decision on which airline to recommend the federal government subsidize at the town airport.

Williams has been on the airport committee his entire time on the board and became the alternate airport security coordinator two years ago. He was one of the deciding votes to suggest the larger airline SkyWest over the current airline Cape Air. He said it was hard to know this could remove air service to Boston and New York City for residents who rely on Cape Air.

But he feels the town should do the best job it can for the most people it can. Certain residents use the airport a lot, but others don’t use it at all.

“Far more do not use it than do, but everybody pays for it,” Williams said.

He wants to increase the airport’s revenue to ease the burden on all taxpayers. There are three ways the airport brings in revenue — hangar fees, fuel sales and enplanements. He said enplanements have been stagnant for a while at around 6,500 to 7,000 per year. For every seat filled on a commercial flight, the town takes almost $4. He thinks between the terminal renovation and the potential new airline, the town can make SLK the regional airport for the Adirondacks.

Data shows 35% of commercial passengers at SLK end their trip in New York City or Boston. Of the 65% who go elsewhere, he said the top destination is Denver. There are few options for direct flights to the west in the region here.

The airport currently operates at a loss each year. In terms of its economic impact, Williams said that makes it worthwhile. Still, he said people often fly into Burlington, Montreal or Albany and drive to the Tri-Lakes. They’re spending money here, but passing over Harrietstown on their way.

He hopes to get the airport to increase services, increase revenue and decrease the tax burden.

As a kid growing up here, he never thought about taxes.

“As a business owner I think you’re constantly thinking about taxes,” Williams said.”And as a homeowner, you’re at least thinking about taxes twice a year.”

“I think so many folks out there have no real problem paying taxes if they have the understanding that those taxes are being spent on things that they need,” Williams said.

But rising costs of materials, insurance and utilities make it harder to do that.

“To think that we can provide the same level of services without somehow generating more revenue is unrealistic,” Williams said.

He’d always rather generate revenue than cut spending. He doesn’t agree with all of the town’s spending, but the things he disagrees with are usually small things.

His problem is that the taxpayer has become the main source of revenue. He wants to find creative ways to spread out revenue so homeowners don’t have to pay so much.

With the recent expansion of Bionique Testing Laboratories at the town business park, Williams said it’s shown potential for growth.

“The space is there. What it lacks is everything else,” he said.

But Bionique brought in new utilities for its facility. And Williams said the state is investing in biomedical research facilities.

To increase housing, they’ll need “creative ideas,” Williams said. He has a couple ideas he wants to investigate, including working with the region’s aging population.

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Election info

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Early voting is currently underway. The deadlines to register to vote, change address or apply for an early mail ballot or an absentee ballot has passed.

The election will be held on Tuesday, Nov. 4, with polls open from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. at the Harrietstown Town Hall.

For more election information, go to tinyurl.com/mryjzn27.