To the Editor:

Under the leadership of Vas Lefkaditis as Knox town supervisor, a lot has been accomplished. Let’s continue the momentum of the last four years.

As the chief financial officer of Knox, he has saved the town a lot of money by negotiating with vendors, renegotiating the town’s debt, and working with volunteers and elected officials to obtain grants. 

Unfortunately, in a recent letter to the editor, a writer implied that he gave himself a raise from $16,000 to $28,000 and that is not true at all. His salary has remained the same for the entire four years. But what is true is that he donated approximately $5,000 of his own money to celebrations.

In the same four-year period, the cash balance on hand grew from approximately $1,000,000 when he took over to approximately $1,700,000, a $700,000 increase from when he took office. That is real money in the bank after all expenses.

He has done this without raising taxes for the full four years!

With the help of the town board and many volunteers, money has been used to make improvements to the town’s infrastructure and to expand services. The town’s highway fleet has been updated, improvements and repairs have been made to the town hall, LED [light-emitting diode] lights have been put in town hall, street lights have LED lamps, a new playground is getting a lot of use, broadband is now a reality, the ballfield in town was redone, and soon you will have online payment of fees courtesy of Clerk Traci Schanz.

The amount of money allocated for seniors and youth services has increased dramatically, providing funding for services.

I support Dennis Cyr and June Springer for the Knox Town Board because both are independent-minded. They say what they mean and stand up for what they believe in. They both bring their life experience and different skills to the job.

Dennis Cyr runs his own small business making prosthetics and previously worked as a manager at a large company. He is a veteran and he is raising his two school-age children in Knox. He is on Knox Zoning Board of Appeals.

June raised her kids in Knox and has been active in community activities for decades, having served on the Berne-Knox-Westerlo Board of Education and coached Little League for years. She is a manager at Diversified Automotive.

I am a lifelong Democrat but will not vote for the Democrats running for town government. I will instead vote for the candidates running on the Republican, Independence, and Conservative lines. Vas Lefkaditis and June Springer are registered Democrats running on these lines.

Vas Lefkaditis is smart, caring, a very hard worker, and a true leader. He can work with the board and volunteers to get things done.

I hope you will join me in voting for Vas Lefkaditis for town supervisor, Dennis Cyr and June Springer for town council, and Traci Schanz for town clerk.

Anna Wolfe

Knox

Editor’s note: Anna Wolfe’s husband, Tom Wolfe, chairs the Knox Planning Board.

What last week’s letter said, which is accurate, is: “For the record, the supervisor’s personal-services line reported to the state comptroller shows an increase from $16,840 reported for 2016 to $28,590 reported for 2017.”