NEW SCOTLAND — , a Republican, is making his first run for public office, contending for one of two open seats on the town board.

Danz wants to see the supervisor’s term doubled to four years, like the town board terms, rather than the two years that it is now.  It would attract more people to run for the office, he said; since being supervisor requires full-time hours few working-age people are willing to give up their jobs to work in a position that lasts for only two years.

New Scotland budgets have been cut to the bone, Danz said, so there are no areas that can clearly be cut to keep the tax-levy hike under the state’s new cap.  Rather than cutting, Danz said, he’d like to increase the tax base by attracting business to the commercial district.

He noted his own business experience, as vice president of Family Danz Heating and Air Conditioning, when he suggested that town government could run more efficiently.

It’s important for highway employees to have a safe working environment, Danz said, and the town should take the most cost-effective route to getting it done.

Of channeling wind energy on a commercial scale, Danz said, “I think it’s a delicate issue.”  There are strong winds on the crest of the Helderbergs where industrial-scale wind turbines could be placed, but “they’re noisy,” he said, explaining that he had recently been to Poland, N.Y. where a large-scale wind farm was operating.

Individual homeowners should be able to erect a turbine, “within reason,” he said, adding that it would be great if people didn’t have to burn fuel to use energy.  “It’s not all good or all bad,” he concluded.

Of the prospect of hydraulic fracturing to reach natural gas reserves, Danz said, “The town of New Scotland is highly dependent on well water, so I would be very concerned having that kind of operation in our town.”

Danz wants to get the size cap passed so that the town can start attracting businesses, he said.  “The people spoke… in the last election,” he said, referring to the race two years ago that split candidates by their vision for commercial development rather than along party lines.  Danz’s Republican running mate, Tim Stanton, lost his bid for a seat on the town board in that election when he ran on a laissez-faire development platform — the two candidates who won had called for a 50,000-square-foot cap on the size of retail stores.

“If the people are for a size cap, I’m for a size cap,” Danz said.

The town has vastly different areas, he said of New Scotland, which encompasses the village of Voorheesville as well as very rural areas.  The needs of all of them have to be considered, he said.  Onesquethaw and Feura Bush need access to water, he said by way of example, whereas the village has a municipal system.