Westerlo election: Justice contest too close to call

WESTERLO — When reporting on the near-identical slates endorsed by the Westerlo Democrats and Republicans this year, The Enterprise wrote that the only “nail-biter” this election would be for those who are highly invested in the town justice race, the sole contest among several open positions. 

And, for those residents, the suspense keeps building. Democratic incumbent Ken Mackey is ahead of Republican challenger Stuart Elderd by only two votes, with absentee ballots yet to be counted. Altogether, Mackey has 434 votes to Elderd’s 432. 

Otherwise, the election results show what was already known: Republican Deputy Supervisor Matthew Kryzak will fill out the remaining two years of his predecessor’s term, and Republicans Lorraine Pecylak and Josh Beers will join him at the dais as town board members, replacing Democrat Joe Boone and Republican Richard Filkins, neither of whom sought re-election. 

Kryzak won 806 votes, with 8 write-ins; Pecylak won 763 votes; and Beers won 740. Twelve people wrote in other candidates for town board. 

If he wins, Mackey will go on to his fourth four-year term, having first been elected in 2009. 

A welder by trade, Mackey, 67, said last week that he has a strong track record over his 12 years as justice of “being fair and impartial.”

If Elderd wins, he’ll bring with him experience as a corrections officer as well as a military police officer for the National Guard. 

““This is a good opportunity for me to get to know the community better,” Elderd, 61, told The Enterprise last week. “As far as the person I’m running against, I’ve never been in front of him so I don’t know what he does [that I would do differently]. It’s just something I’m interested in.”

More Hilltowns News

  • After raising taxes more than 750 percent for this year’s budget, Berne Supervisor Dennis Palow — who lacks a town board after a majority of members resigned over financial and other concerns — is proposing raising taxes 19 percent to roughly $5.49 per $1,000 in assessed value, which would be the highest tax rate in more than a decade.

  • Berne Supervisor Dennis Palow made the rare decision to speak with The Enterprise this week, offering his side of two allegations that have defined the town for at least the past few months: that he has allowed the town to drift into financial ruin, and that he meanwhile had created such a hostile work environment that three of his fellow Republican-backed town board members resigned.

  • It’s been two-and-a-half months since three of the Berne Town Board’s five members resigned suddenly over concerns about the town’s supervisor, Dennis Palow, yet there’s been no meaningful updates about when the board will resume functioning, even as time runs out on the year’s budget cycle. 

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