Andrea Gleason is running for a third four-year term on the Republican ticket. A retired Voorheesville school teacher, she has said she brings a senior citizen’s perspective to the board.
With the Clarksville water extension, the question left for residents is "Can I afford to hook up"" Gleason said. Since people have to pay for their own hook-ups, she is in favor of using creative ideas to help reduce the expense, such as bidding out a contract collectively, so that one contractor may give a reduced rate if he is guaranteed 10 customers.

Town board members can help with this, Gleason said. Board members’ main purpose is to help the residents and inform them, she said.
Gleason said she wants to extend the Clarksville Water District as far down and to as many people as possible. If the town’s engineer comes up with a creative way to make it affordable, "I’ll be all for it," she said.

She said she understands the frustration residents feel over water. Where Gleason lives, she has well water and she is two houses away from a pipe.
"I know what it feels like to be so close, yet so far," Gleason said.

If the town does get water from Albany, one of Gleason’s first priorities is New Salem South Road and Font Grove Road, and then, the corridor — trying to make a business district.
"I think what drives business here is not the businesses saying, ‘You need me,’ but communities saying, ‘We need you,’" she said. "The community has to be able to support these businesses," Gleason said.

The town wants to have businesses that provide services residents actually need, rather than having empty storefronts, she said.
Of Omni’s doctors’ office to be built on Route 85, Gleason said, "I’m really happy about that." The area needed a medical facility, she said.

A family kind of restaurant would also be desirable, Gleason said.
The town board can encourage consumer demand, she said, "by keeping things looking nice...spiffing things up a bit, fluffing things up to make people want to be here and shop," she said.

The zoning and planning boards have done an excellent job, Gleason said.
Development rules help people feel guided, she said, adding, "My problem is that things change." She cited an example that an area zoned commercial is no longer next to a railroad.
"Should it be re-thunk, redone; maybe we should be flexible," Gleason said.

A town board member has to be aware of changes and look at the total package, she said. Mixed use offers flexibility, she said.

While she particularly thinks of mixed use in older town’s main streets, Gleason would like to investigate and keep an open mind about mixed use in New Scotland.

Years ago, planning experts said it was a bad idea to put industrial next to commercial next to residential.
"I was told that’s a difficult blend," said Gleason, because of noise and other complaints. "But now they are saying it can work," she said of planning experts.
Gleason thinks mixed use in New Scotland could work, factoring in "what kind of business it is, such as, is it a smelly business," she said.

Gleason said that she thinks the corridor’s retail space really could fill in with mixed kinds of businesses.

The report produced by the Residents’ Planning Advisory Board should still be used as guidelines, Gleason said, as helpful hints.
The town should "not just close it and it’s over with," she said. "I think it should still be used as a guide and useful tool," she said.
"Builders want to make money; that’s their job. You really can’t fault them for wanting to make as much money as they can," she said, but the town does need to do something about creating homes for seniors and first-time homebuyers.

When Salem Hills was built in the 1960’s, the houses were affordable, Gleason said. Mostly first-time homebuyers moved into the development, she said.
"Maybe a builder can get his money in some other way," Gleason said, perhaps with a combination of mixed housing types and cost ranges.
"I don’t know what the secret is to it," she said.
But with Amedore Homes’ proposal, she said, $250,000 "for a little townhouse doesn’t seem like senior housing."

It would take building a high density development, placing many units in one space, such as four units per lot, for a builder to get enough return to make it worth his while, she said, but no one wants that either.
"I think the town would suffer from high density; the roads and the services would suffer from it," Gleason said.

People want to keep the rural character in town, she said.

Gleason said the town could stand one planned-unit development.
"I really think it’s looking toward the future," she said, adding that she thinks it’s all right in that one spot on New Scotland Road.

Gleason is not happy about the proposed density of the Kensington Woods subdivision. It’s a vigorous undertaking; it should be reduced so that is not so ambitious, she said.
"In our town, taxes are very reasonable," Gleason said, "It’s the school taxes that cost so much."

As a town board member, her approach to managing spending is to start at the top and work down.
"If I watch what I spend and what other people spend, it will trickle down," she said.

When others see Gleason holding the line, then they will see some other areas that can be held too, she said.

Being fiscally conservative to her also means that, if the town were to get extra sales or mortgage tax revenues, she would give the money back to the people rather then say spend more.
"Sometimes you have to give it back to the people," she said, and that’s what she would vote to do.

Gleason has stated that she is a senior citizen on a fixed income.
"I feel very proud of our senior outreach program," Gleason said. Sue Weisz, the senior outreach liaison, has gained the confidence of the people of the community and elderly residents now know they have someone to call when they need help, Gleason said.

Elected officials are getting to know the seniors in town, and the elderly feel confident that people are here for them, that people in town care about them, and that the town wants them to stay here.

New Scotland seniors used to think they were alone, Gleason said.