Voters in the Town of Danby are being asked to vote for one candidate.One open seat; one candidate; full term.Tompkins County Board of Elections: For more information, including sample ballots https://www.tompkinscountyny.gov/boe (607) 274-5522; 214 West State Street, Ithaca, NY 14850Polling place: https://voterlookup.elections.ny.govThe Town Supervisor is part of the legislative branch and acts as a member and presiding officer of the Town Board. He or she acts as a full member of the Board, voting on all questions and having no additional tie-breaking or veto power. The Supervisor is more of an administrator than an executive. Duties under law are to: act as treasurer and have care and custody of monies belonging to the Town; disburse monies; keep an accurate and complete account of all monies; make reports as required; pay fixed salaries and other claims; and sell and convey properties of the Town when so directed by the Town Board.
Candidate's Name
Joel Gagnon
Campaign Phone
607-227-4440
Current Employment/Occupation
Town Supervisor
Government Experience-elected or volunteer (e.g. committees)
see skills and experience question below
Education
BS in Biology
MS in Nutrition
I enjoy problem solving and planning, both of which have figured prominently in my years of public service as a volunteer and in various elected and appointed positions. The heightened polarization we have experienced in recent years, manifest even on the local level, makes critical thinking and objective analysis both more difficult and more important than ever. I hope to help the Danby community look to its future, confront the issues that need to be dealt with, and come to resolutions for the common good.
I have a long history of volunteering, starting in high school and continuing through college to the present with over 40 years in a variety of local groups and committees including the Danby Community Council, Planning Board, Board of Zoning Appeals, Conservation Advisory Council, and Town Board. Serving in all those capacities gave me critical listening and writing skills, the ability to facilitate collective work, and prepared me to serve as supervisor. I am looking forward to my fourth 2-year term.
Protecting what makes Danby an attractive place to live is a priority for me and serves as a point of reference. Enabling small lot development is critical to creating and extending our population centers. Neighborhoods bring people together. Walkable neighborhoods are more interesting to walk through and can support more business activity. The economies that follow upon higher density can make new housing more affordable and easier and less expensive to support with services such as trails, community gardens, pocket parks and similar gathering spaces. To make our hamlets places that people want to move into, there have to be advantages to being there. Retaining a strong connection to nature is important since it is what makes living in a small rural hamlet an attractive option when compared to a city alternative.
Do we have the will to invest in sewer systems for one or both our hamlets, and how extensively if so? I don’t know the answer to those questions but I think it is important to explore. Are there other viable options for shared wastewater treatment that could substitute for or supplement traditional sewer systems? What can the town do to make them easier and less expensive to do? We are now in receipt of an engineering study of the options that can inform a community conversation about how to move forward. How do we deal with our main highways that very few would choose to live near to? I would like to see that issue addressed. We need to adopt a noise law to provide a recourse for those subject to unreasonable noise, and we need to update our definition of agriculture to better reflect its changed nature and better support it.
Email, website, surveys, public information meetings, videoconferencing, sharing information with newspaper and other media outlets (including social media), and especially a regularly-published town newsletter delivered to all the residents have been and will continue to be used.
