North Country This Week

POTSDAM — The Democratic Party nominee for village mayor is looking to the future of the village and plans to focus on building a new comprehensive plan for the municipality.

Alexandra Jacobs Wilke, the SUNY Potsdam public relations director and village trustee, hopes to also make government more transparent, with greater community involvement.

Wilke will face write-in challenger Joseph Bowen in the fall election.

“I’m running for mayor because I care deeply about our community and its future. This is where I met my husband, where we made our home, where we had our girls, and where we have built our careers. I believe we all have a role to play in leaving our corner of the planet a little better than we found it—and this is my way of giving back,” Wilke said. 

“I remember taking long walks with the stroller after the birth of our oldest daughter and wondering about ways that we could improve the village’s sidewalks, address blighted properties, or revitalize our parks. After serving on the zoning board for a time, I decided to take the leap and run for the village board. Four years later, I am honored to take the next step by running for mayor.”

Wilke said some of the obvious challenges facing the village include a small tax base, aging infrastructure, and attracting new businesses and development.

“But when you get down to it, I just think we struggle with not being able to see the forest for the trees,” she said. “It’s easy to get wrapped up in the issue of the day or to focus on the failures of the past. I’m more interested in what we can do right now, today, to make things better.”

She points to many of the village’s strengths and hopes to build on those in the future –  things like two universities, a growing hospital system, a top-rated school system, affordable real estate, a stunning natural landscape, a walkable historic downtown, and fantastic institutions like our museums, non-profits, arts organizations and faith communities.

“We have millions of dollars in investment in the form of federal, state and private grant funds flowing into this community as we speak, to make it even better. This is our chance to prioritize and focus on what matters most, so that we can build toward a stronger future,” she said.

Wilke said she is proud to call Potsdam home and is here to stay. “I approach this work with curiosity, compassion and humility, the curiosity to wonder how other communities handle certain issues or to seek to understand the roots of a problem, the compassion to empathize with my neighbors and friends, and to genuinely engage on topics big and small, and finally, the humility to know that no one person holds all the answers,” the currently sitting trustee said.

She said the mayor sits to direct the village’s efforts but is a member of the board. If elected she hopes to create more collaboration between village officials on future projects.

“I couldn’t be more excited, for example, about the Downtown Revitalization Initiative projects to transform downtown and make it much more beautiful and welcoming. Being on the project advisory committee has given me the opportunity to hear from downtown business owners and talk about the nitty gritty details about pulling these projects off,” she said.

“Big picture, we need a new comprehensive plan for our community, one that is built from the ground up on a really rigorous process, based on best practices in smart growth and compact development. This can inform an overhaul of our village code that our zoning and planning boards are already starting to work on,” Wilke said.

Wilke would like to open up government to the citizens to a greater degree, and has worked to update the new village website [soon to be online] to make it easier for the public to engage with village officials.

“If elected, I will propose a meeting schedule for the year in which the board will get to see different aspects of our operations each month, and the public will be invited to tag along (for instance, taking a look at our new police dispatch equipment, checking out the new salt barn, doing a walkthrough of proposed improvements to Pine Street Arena, or touring the newly renovated wastewater treatment plant),” she said.

She said in addition to continuing to livestream meetings she would like to create an area for children’s activities during meetings so parents can attend.

“I’d like to bring back our public budget workshop sessions, where we go through each area of the budget in detail with the relevant department heads, to better understand where and why costs are changing, and how we are allocating our funds in a responsible way going forward. I’d also like to institute an annual report from the village, to show the work that we do in an easy-to-understand format,” she said.

The candidate would also like to introduce walking meetings and audits of village infrastructure so officials and board members can see issues first hand that need to be addressed in the village.

Wilke is campaigning at the grassroots level, talking with constituents at church, farmers markets, school functions and other activities. She also plans a series of Coffee with the Candidate events at Jernabi Coffeehouse over the next few weeks.

Voters can connect with her online at facebook.com/alexforpotsdam.

“We are lucky to call so many of you our neighbors and our friends,” Wilke states, addressing the voters directly. “Now, I hope I can earn your confidence, your trust, and your vote. If you believe in my positive vision for our future, please get yourself to the polls. I hope to work with you, no matter what.”