To the Editor:
I’m Kevin McDonald, a Democratic candidate for Guilderland Town Board. I decided to run for office for the simple fact that the residents of this town are not being heard. It’s time we elect independent voices that will truly represent you and your concerns. It’s time we have meaningful discussions on how to plan for the future of this town. It’s time we have energetic officials who will take on issues that need to be addressed.

I have no interest in running a negative campaign. The facts speak for themselves. Mr. [Donald] Csaposs last week made statements that I did not bother to be involved with planning pertaining to my area’s corridor study [“Pastore and Beedle have a clear sense of dedication to their community,” The Altamont enterprise, Letters to the Editor, June 10, 2021].

However, I can assure you that, had we been properly notified of these meetings and studies, my extremely motivated neighbors and I would have attended. My neighbors and I, who live literally in the backyard of these Pyramid proposals, never received notices of these meetings from the town.  Meetings that would determine that our quality of life was irrelevant, compared to the wishes of a big developer like Pyramid.

If elected, I will make sure that resident engagement is a high priority. Let’s find creative ways to continuously engage our communities and foster solutions to better our town.

The topic of development has predominantly been in the headlines and there is so much more that needs to be addressed. I am not against all development, but it has to be responsibly done.

Yes, I did file a lawsuit, along with my neighbors and a local business owner, against the huge Pyramid expansion proposal, and we won. This lawsuit was to help protect my neighborhood from a series of issues that would undeniably wreak havoc on our lives and properties.

Supreme Court Judge Lynch found, in a scathing 77-page decision, that the Guilderland Planning Board and the town had brazenly violated and flouted the law in order to give Pyramid basically everything it wanted. I saw firsthand how the issues and concerns of the local residents and the environmentalists were pushed aside, and how the local law that was created was being unfairly stretched to advance projects on behalf of a corporation. This same corporation bleeds our tax dollars with its greed.

I found an article from 1999 written by Daniel Van Riper on the Save the Pine Bush website where Mr. Csaposs himself, then one of the organizers of a residents’ group opposed to an earlier Pyramid expansion, argued that Crossgates is making things worse for the town, and that we should all expect property tax increases of 4.5 to 5 percent. In that very same article, he is quoted as saying, “If we can return power to the people, we can build something new.” Now that’s a statement I agree with.

I ask for your support in this upcoming primary to elect Christine Napierski and me, so that we all can have a local government that will make you a priority. For more information on my campaign, please visit my website at kevinforguilderland.org or find me on Facebook @ Friends of Kevin McDonald.

Let’s put the residents back in control of their town.

Kevin McDonald

Democratic Candidate

Guilderland Town Board