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Opinion: St. Lawrence County Legislator Perkins wants to continue fixing issues facing county

Posted 11/2/18

I am running for the District 7 County Legislature seat again. This district encompasses the townships of Clare, Colton, Hopkinton, Parishville, Pierrepont and Piercefield. I am running again because …

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Opinion: St. Lawrence County Legislator Perkins wants to continue fixing issues facing county

Posted

I am running for the District 7 County Legislature seat again. This district encompasses the townships of Clare, Colton, Hopkinton, Parishville, Pierrepont and Piercefield.

I am running again because there are still many issues facing the county, and I would like to be a part of fixing them.

I have worked across party lines to accomplish the turnaround the county has seen. We have eliminated the need to borrow, we have been able to put money into the Fund balance, we have taken the county out of the fiscally stressed classification, at the same time we have slightly lowered property taxes each year while being able to provide our services without interruption. I have worked closely with the Towns of Parishville and Hopkinton during the contentious time with the Wind Farm proposal. I continue to work closely with the towns and its citizens.

However the job is not complete yet we have a long way to go to put the county in a better place, some of the issues we continue to face are that our taxes are still too high for the working families to afford.

Our infrastructure is in dire need of replacing, our roads and bridges are very old and failing on a regular basis. We have too many state unfunded mandates encompassing 99% of our budget

We have an exploding opioid epidemic.

We have a Judge who enforces his personal beliefs on all the law abiding fully background checked, Carry Concealed Pistol licensees, he continues enforcing restrictions upon all applicants

I would also like to address my opponents comments to the citizens of our district, Kevin Beary has been telling everyone that because I am a Democrat and on the Working Families party lines that I cannot be for the 2nd Amendment, he cannot be farther from the truth, and he and I had this discussion many months ago so he is fully aware that I am 100% pro-2nd amendment.

I was approached by the Conservative party and asked to run on the Conservative line as well.

I have been a strong advocate for the 2nd amendment and I have been and will continue to push the issue of the unlawful restriction of Pistol Licensing from our county judge. I have also been outspoken against the SAFE act. I have been an avid outdoorsman my entire life, I have been hunting fishing since I was a little boy. I have lived here in St. Lawrence County my entire life and I better understand what our needs are, more than what my opponent can say.

I am asking for your Vote on November 6th 2018 so I can continue my efforts to help make our county a better place to live.

Rick Perkins

Potsdam