By CRAIG FREILICH

POTSDAM -- The Village of Potsdam held its annual meeting Monday night and swore in board members including new trustee Nick Sheehan and former Mayor Ron Tischler who is returning to that post.

Tischler, a trustee who decided to run again for mayor when Mayor Steve Yurgartis announced he would not run again, sees the financial concerns as the biggest challenges for the village.

“The village is in some financial straits. We’re going to dig out of it but it’s going to be a slow process,” Tischler said.

“We really got burned with the west dam,” he said, referring to the long and expensive process of getting the village’s second power generation station on the Raquette River up and running after a primary contractor reneged on a deal to provide major parts for the project. The village won a $6.8 million judgment against the manufacturer, Canadian Turbines, but the prospect of collecting is not good. The village also went into debt on maintenance on the east dam turbines.

“I hope both dams generate power and bring in revenue,” he said.

Meanwhile, he noted sales tax revenue is down “and that doesn’t help us any.”

His main goal is to “build the tax base and attract development to reduce the tax rate,” he said.

“We have a string staff and a very capable administrator and department heads,” he said.

He also noted that village residents want and need the services village government provides, such as wastewater treatment, “and so far the village is willing to pay. But for services, there’s always a price to pay.”

Also on Monday night, Trustee Eleanor Hopke was appointed deputy mayor, a post that has been held by Trustee Ruth Garner, who recently celebrated her 100th birthday.

Assorted appointed village officers were officially reappointed at the meeting.

As he thought about what is next for him, outgoing Mayor Steve Yurgartis, a Clarkson University professor, said “I think I’ll retire from politics for a while, and try something different. It’s time to make a change, turn the page.”

But he’s not concerned about finding something to do.

“Something always seems to come along,” he said.