Village elections are set for tomorrow in New York. WAMC takes a look at the mayoral race in the Washington County village of Cambridge, one of few competitive races in our region.
New York State villages traditionally hold their elections in March. In the village of Cambridge the elections are non-partisan and move along at a slower place. Mayor Valerie Reagan is the incumbent in the village of about 1,800 people: "We're very old fashioned here in the village. The cost of the county scanning machines for the vote are prohibitive, so we use paper. The old-fashioned paper ballot. And we have a wonderful old wooden box, that's probably an antique at his point. And people drop their paper ballot into this large wooden box. And then at the end of the night, they're hand-counted."
The race pits Reagan against Trustee Carman Bogle.
"Last election cycle I was a write-in candidate and I won a seat. That was wonderful to see the turnout. Most village votes don't have a high turnout. So to see so much support was really awesome."
Reagan concedes neither candidate had an inkling they'd be facing off in the mayor's race. "That's very true. Carman's been on the board for just a year, and I've been in office for two years. I wasn't aware that she had these aspirations. So, here we are."
Bogle decided to jump in because locals kept asking her 'Are you interested in being mayor?' "You know my response has always been, 'Someday, someday,' and as it started getting closer I was like 'You know what? This would be a great year to run!"
The candidates agree the race is being run on a friendly level. Bogel explained "I still have my trustee seat if I should lose, and if I'm mayor, then, hey, I can really go to work." Reagan stated "At the end of the day, on Thursday, March 19th, we'll still go back to work and get a few things done."
But that's where the chumminess may come to an end. "I think that if Carman wins, it will be a setback for the village. What I bring to the office is a lot of experience in terms of village government, but also in terms of government operations. I've spent over 20 years working for the state of New York, probably over 30 years interacting with the state of New York. And there's a big education piece in terms of how government operations should run, and I think that's been a problem in the past for the village. It's not a family business. It's not a gathering of friends who work together. Government operations really need to be specific and monitored and ethical."
Bogle thinks its time to review village zoning laws, upgrade the local fire house, and get serious about attracting and growing new businesses while better-serving existing ones. "We don't have any wastewater treatment. And for a lot of the businesses on Main Street that's a big problem, because their business can only be so big. And so I'd like to start looking in some direction to see where can we find the money."
Reagan claims since taking the mayor's job two years ago she's spent a lot of time getting the village’s financial records up to snuff, though there is additional work to be done. She fears glitches and setbacks under a Bogle-led administration. At the same time, she believes this is an exciting time for the village, with many projects and proposals in the works for new construction and re-purposing existing buildings that would impart long-term benefits for residents, including one that would turn the shuttered-since-2003 Mary McClellan Hospital into a "hospitality complex."
The polls are open Wednesday from noon to 9 p.m. Cambridge elections are being held at Village Municipal offices.
