RENSSELAERVILLE — Robert Tanner, a Democrat, is running for town board because, he says, “Rensselaerville is a small town. I want to make it more bipartisan..”

He went on, “There’s a lot of ‘them’ and ‘us.’ We all need to be one. There is strength in numbers. When we agree on something, we have to work for the common good.”

Tanner’s family has been in Rensselaerville for four generations. “When they used to call Rensselaerville the city, my relatives had an autobus from Rensselaerville to Albany,” he said, adding that other relatives were carpenters who built some of the town’s historic structures.

Tanner, who is 56, works as a foreman supervising other foremen for the Albany County Department of Public Works. He started with the department 34 years ago as a laborer and worked his way up.

Tanner’s public service is varied: He was a Little League coach when his children were young, he’s volunteered as an emergency medical technician on the ambulance squad, and he has held many posts in the fire company; he is currently its chief.

“The way I was raised was neighbors helping neighbors — that’s what you do,” said Tanner. Now, he said, it’s a struggle to find volunteers. “Everybody’s got busy lifestyles,” he said.

Tanner said he has time now to serve on the town board because he has just retired after 26 years serving in the construction arm of the Navy. He was deployed twice in Iraq and twice in Afghanistan.

He honed his leadership skills during his overseas deployment, Tanner says. He said he knows what it’s like to assign someone to a duty in a combat zone “knowing they might not come back.”

If he’s elected to the board, Tanner said he’d like to work on bringing more internet and cell service to Rensselaerville. “At schools now, everything is web-based. Some parents have to take their kids to the library to do their work; it’s a burden on them,” he said.

Tanner also said, “Shared services is a great idea.” Tanner said, at the county’s department of public works, “We’ve been doing that quite a while — just a handshake thing. I’m 100 percent behind that.”

On the budget, Tanner said, “I’ve looked at the tentative budget. They’ve cut it to the bone. I don’t see anywhere they can cut. The town board has done a good job of keeping costs down. The highway department is the biggest part of the budget.”

Tanner also said, “There’s not a lot you get in the town for your money. No one picks up your garbage,” he said giving an example of a typical municipal service. “Most of the money goes to the roads. Sacrificing those is not a good thing.”

On revaluation, Tanner said that he was an assessor for Rensselaerville in the early  1990s; that was before the 1998 town-wide property revaluation.

“It was skewed,” he said of the tax roles. “Some people were paying more than they should be and other people weren’t — people took care of them. That’s not right. If you have a $750,000 house, you should pay what you owe.”

He concluded of revaluation, “It probably should be done.”

On the local economy, Tanner suggested perhaps giving fledgling businesses tax breaks “to encourage sustainable farming.” He went on, “A huge thing is the brewery in Rensselaerville.” He noted new state requirements to encourage breweries, necessitating the materials be grown in New York State.

“Start bringing in mom-and-pops,” he said of promoting small, family-owned businesses. “Do whatever we can to help them. Don’t penalize them.” He suggested tax breaks for the first three to five years while a new business establishes itself. “Then re-evaluate and charge accordingly,” said Tanner.

On where Rensselaerville will take its garbage after the Rapp Road landfill closes, Tanner said, “I’ve posed that question … They don’t seem concerned; there’s still time.”

Tanner also said that the town “does a decent job” of recycling. “There’s a place to take electronics, paper, cardboard, glass, metals,” he said, adding, “The hamlet has an area where people can take compost; it could be advertised better.”

On affordable housing, Tanner said prices were dictated by the real-estate market.  “If people come in and can afford $500,000, that’s what the Realtors would sell it for.”

He said the town could investigate federal housing subsidies for Rensselaerville residents “to see if we could make it work.” He also said of properties that the county is selling for back taxes, “Maybe we can renovate those and turn them into low-income housing.”

Tanner also noted, “There are a lot of tax-exempt properties in town, which is a huge burden on residents.” He said he’d like to make the town “more business-friendly — bring in mom-and-pops,” he said of small family businesses.

On what to do about the opioid crisis, Tanner said, “Just education, education, education. And make it more available if someone feels they have an addiction, they know the right place to go.”

He went on, “In the fire district, we’re getting schooled on this … You need to tell people, there are ways to get off it. The library is actively getting trained on it.”

Tanner concluded, “I’m not seeing it here, thank God.”