BY CRAIG FREILICH

North Country This Week

POTSDAM -- Several elected positions in town and village governments will be up for election in November, including seats on both boards.

In the Town of Potsdam, the all-Democrat, all-woman council will see two women and one man running as Democrats, and one man on the Republican and Conservative party ballot lines. They will run for the supervisor’s spot and two council seats.

In the village, the mayor, one incumbent trustee and one new trustee candidate, all Democrats and unopposed, are running.

Town of Potsdam race

Town Supervisor Ann Carvill of Potsdam, a Democrat councilor appointed to the board’s top spot after former Supervisor Rollin Beattie died, won a special election to continue for the year remaining in Beattie’s term, and is now running unopposed for a full term.

Toni Kennedy of Potsdam, appointed as an interim councilor in Carvill’s former council seat, won the right to run last November for the rest of Carvill’s term with a primary win last year against James Grant. Now that that term is ending, Kennedy is running for a whole new term.

Last November, she beat Larry Colbert of Norwood, a Republican who is also running again this year.

The other board seat up for grabs is that of Councilor Rose Rivezzi, who has chosen not to run again.

Kennedy and Marty Miller of Norwood won Democrat ballot lines in the June primary, defeating a third Democrat, Keith D. Mitchell of Buck’s Bridge.

Kennedy, a nurse, is mainly running on issues of the environment -- climate change and the Green New Deal -- and as a leader in promoting civic engagement in those issues and campaign finance reform, among others.

Miller has spoken on infrastructure improvements, issues with tax-exempt property, and the roles of the Village of Norwood and the Town of Potsdam, and notes his experience with budgets and personnel as a supervisor with the St. Lawrence County Highway Department and building contractors.

Colbert wishes to be a conservative voice on the town council to keep taxes low and increase the tax base with efforts to promote tourism and small business. Colbert, an electrician, Alcoa worker and a former code enforcement officer, says he is interested in examining property tax assessments for consistency.

Republican Cindy Goliber, longtime town clerk, is running for a fifth term in that position, and is not running to keep the seat on the village Board of Trustees she was appointed to after Trustee Nick Sheehan stepped down. She said she was afraid of being unfair to voters, potentially confusing them if she appeared on the ballot for both town and village offices.

Democrat John Keleher is running once again for town highway superintendent, unopposed.

No contested positions in village

Mayor Reinhold “Ron” Tischler is running for mayor for what he says is the last time. He said there are “many unfinished programs I’d like to see through to completion,” such as the rebuilding of the wastewater treatment plant, seeing all four village hydroelectric generators on the Raquette River dams producing power reliably, and moving forward the planned makeover of Old Snell Hall.

With Goliber declining to run again for the board and Trustee Abby Lee’s term expiring, two trustee seats are up for election this fall.

Abby Lee is running again, also wishing to help “bring to fruition” some items the village has been working on over the last few years. Those project include the renovation of Old Snell Hall into apartments and space for community activities, and if it comes through, carrying out the plans for the $10 million Downtown Revitalization Initiative grant. She said turnover on the board has been a concern to her, and she would like to be part of a core of experienced legislators

Alexandra Wilke, who works in public relations at SUNY Potsdam, has expressed concern about voters’ perception of potential for a conflict of interest between her job and village business, but has said she has “stepped away from the government relations duties” at the college, would abstain in voting on any measures where conflict could be an issue, and that on the board she would be “speaking as an individual and not as a representative of the college.”

Tischler, Lee and newcomer Wilke were all chosen by Democrats at the village Democratic Party caucus in June to be on the November ballot.

So far there has been no public mention of any Republican or other party candidates coming forward for village positions, and no write-in candidate has announced an effort.

County Republican Chairman Tom Jenison has confirmed that no Republicans have come forward to challenge the Democrats running for village government.