Westerlo election 2017: Kevin Flensted

Kevin Flensted

WESTERLO — “I’m looking for a little bit of change in the town,” said Republican Kevin Flensted of his reason for running for a seat on the Westerlo Town Board.

He first ran two years ago, motivated, as he is now, by making the government more transparent. He was narrowly defeated in a four-way race for two seats.

Flensted, who is 45, works as manager of quality compliance for Regeneron Pharmaceuticals. He moved to Westerlo in 2007 and is the chief  of the town’s volunteer fire company.

“A handful of folks attend board meetings,” Flensted said this week. “People shouldn’t be precluded from information, whether they attend or not.”

He named the town’s website, Facebook, and other social media as ways the board could communicate with citizens and “get more input on where people want to see the town go.”

He feels the current board is “very resistant” to change. “Twice they had a vote on a huge amount of money for town hall and the highway garage without a lot of information,” Flensted said.

He noted that voters had to petition for a vote on the first $2.8 million proposal, which was soundly defeated.

Asked whether Westerlo should undergo town-wide property revaluation, Flensted said, “The hardest thing when I moved here, it’s not full-market value.”

He noted that, when he made improvements to his property, adding a garage, his valuation went up 28 percent.

He continued, “I also understand that no one likes to see their taxes go up. We should move toward grants. This year, we missed getting a shared-services grant.”

Flensted asserted that the town building that houses the highway garage, Westerlo’s court, and State Police would have been ripe for such a grant.

Flensted concluded, “I’d like to see reasonable, full-market values. I’d like people on fixed incomes, like seniors, to offset their taxes so they wouldn’t have a huge increase.”

On the town’s buildings, Flensted said, “We need to have the townspeople’s input.” He also spoke of the importance of maintenance, noting, “Our firehouse is 20 years older than the town highway garage and we’ve been able to maintain it.”

He noted that the former school building was purchased for $200,000 with grant money but said it “has turned into an albatross.” He named expenses for removing asbestos, dealing with an old furnace, and fixing flooring.

“I don’t think sinking $800,000 into that makes sense,” said Flensted. He suggested the board should look at a new modular or Morton building.

On transparency, Flensted said that the town attorney had admitted there was an illegal meeting as the board worked on its first plan for the town hall.

He reiterated his views on informing citizens through modern electronic methods.

“Everybody I know is on social media,” he said.”We need to use the tools available … We can’t even get an accurate agenda published before the town board meeting.”

On the comprehensive plan, Flensted said, “I don’t think we’ve really made any progress with that.”

He is from western New York and said he recently returned to Orleans County, which he described as more rural than Westerlo. “Every road had cable and town water available,” he said. “And it’s far less dense there than in Westerlo. I don’t understand why we can’t have broadband.”

Flensted also said he could envision Route 32 as a business corridor, which would help to ease the tax burden, he said.

On the budget, Flensted said, “We should get the budget out a lot sooner than we do.” That way, citizens could participate in the process, he said.

Flensted said he had read the comptroller’s comments on the water district, which involves borrowing from the town’s general fund. “It’s supposed to be paid back by the end of the year,” he said, which Flensted does not think is possible.

“There are too few users for the district to be solvent,” he said. “We need to tackle that.”

Asked about a solution, Flensted said, “Maybe expansion of the district with grants to get more users to make it solvent.”

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