New Scotland Archives — The Altamont Enterprise, September 29, 2011
Tim Stanton
By Saranac Hale Spencer
NEW SCOTLAND — Making his second run for town board, Tim Stanton is on the Republican line this year. Two years ago, he ran on a line called New Scotland FIRST, which was created after he lost his bid for the GOP line in a heated primary.
“One of my main things in the campaign is to cut, cut, cut,” he said of keeping the budget below the state mandated cap on the tax levy. Stanton, who owns a farm with his wife in Feura Bush, named no specific departments from which the cuts would come, but rather said that every department would have to be cut back. The cuts would “start right at Town Hall,” he said.
New Scotland should consider privatizing some of the highway duties and downsizing the municipal highway department, Stanton said. That would also mean that the department might not need more space, doing away with the garage project altogether, he said.
The prospect of generating energy from wind has to be looked at, Stanton said. The first step is to get a committee together to study the issue, he said, noting that the town board had started putting together a committee a couple of years ago but didn’t follow through. He had been asked to serve on it. “I’m definitely not against wind energy,” Stanton said, adding that the town should develop a zoning code to govern it.
Hydraulic fracturing to reach natural gas could be an economic boon if gas extraction is feasible in New Scotland, Stanton said. “It’s not something to be ruled out,” he said. “It would be well worth looking at.” The process could bring an influx of jobs and money to the town, he said, concluding, “Like the wind — it’s another resource the town may have to bring in some more economic growth, not just more houses.”
Stanton isn’t opposed to a 50,000-square-foot cap on the size of retail stores, he said, which is a departure from his position when he ran for town board two years ago. He wasn’t as opposed to the cap as he was to other things in the size-cap bill, he said this week of his former stance. It’s important for the town to keep its commercial zone along Route 85 open for commercial development, he said, rather than letting it be used up with residential development. Of the size cap bill, he said, “I’m against loading up the rest of the proposal with things that might hinder business.”
Stanton stressed that it is the job of a town board member to listen. The job is to “listen to everybody, [and] not be beholden to anyone.”