NEW SCOTLAND — The town’s Democratic committee has endorsed Elizabeth Stewart, a business-development manager, for supervisor; she’ll run against incumbent Ed Clark this fall.

"I’m running because New Scotland needs to be a town for young people and old as well," Stewart said.

She said the town needs affordable housing for people at both ends of the age spectrum.

Connie Burns, who chairs the town’s Democratic committee, said several candidates wanted to run but the committee chose Stewart because she is "very smart" and was the candidate most up-to-date on town issues.

"She’s a take-charge person who will study whatever she has to know," Burns said.

Stewart told The Enterprise that running for supervisor is something she has "toyed with" for some time and now, with her youngest of four children in graduate school, and with less traveling for her work, she has the time.

Stewart has lived with her husband in New Scotland for 30 years working as a business development manager, primarily with bio-technology companies.

She has a bachelor’s of science degree from the State University of New York Institute of Technology, in Utica, where she is also currently enrolled for a master’s degree in management.

Priorities

"How many kids have we lost out of this town"" Stewart asked.

The town needs to offer affordable housing for young people to look at, Stewart said.

With nanotechnology underway, the Capital Region is on the edge of development, Stewart said, which will change the whole geography.

"The whole flavor of Albany County is going to change," she said, as she compared the situation it to Silicon Valley in California.

New Scotland needs moderate growth in both commercial and residential development, Stewart said. But with that, infrasture is needed, she said.

"I do not like to go to a place with wall to wall houses," she said, adding that she likes green space.

As for seniors, Stewart said over her 30 years in New Scotland, she has seen the original owners of houses "forced to leave, not by choice but out of necessity."

She cited both high taxes and lack of services as driving forces.

What seniors also need is a place for camaraderie with people their own age as well, she said.

Amedore Homes’ proposal for senior housing on Route 85 is "an excellent idea," she said. It is a housing opportunity for seniors which will bring in more tax dollars for the town, she said.

"Seniors aren’t getting out a 8 a.m. and returning at 5 p.m....They aren’t putting stress on the infrastructure," Stewart said, referring to traffic and road patterns.

"I think the town should go forward with it," Stewart said; which would mean a Planned Unit Development re-zone approval by the town board.

Stewart said that her mother-in-law is 96 years old and they just moved her into in the area from out of Gloversville. Stewart’s 88-year-old mother lives in Albany and her father is a 90 year-old snowbird, who travels back and forth between here and Florida.

Council seat

Peg Neri, also of Voorheesville, got the Democrat’s nod for a council seat in May.

Neri, an attorney, is an income-tax litigator for the New York State Department of Taxation and Finance. She has lived in New Scotland for 11 years.

Her husband, Louis Neri, is currently serving as legal council for New Scotland’s planning and zoning boards.

She said she wants to "expand the tax base in an effort to keep taxes down without infringing on services."

There are a lot of critical land-use issues facing the town, she said. As a town council member, Neri wants to look at the area that is zoned or could be zoned for commercial use," but, she is not saying that there should be town-wide rezoning, but instead a town-wide look at where the existing commercial district is and the best use of that commercial land.

Neri has three boys, two of whom will be going to college in the fall, she said.

She has always been interested in town government, she said, and has followed the issues, only now, along with her continued interest, she also has time.