To the Editor:

Please let me tell you who I am and why I am running for town councilman as a Republican in Westerlo. I am also supported by the Conservative Party and Reform Party.

I went to school in the Greenville School District and have a high school diploma from there. I moved to Westerlo at age 18 and have lived here over 50 years.

I spent over four years in the United States Navy and received an honorable discharge with a Vietnam Service Medal with a Silver Star, National Defense Service Medal and Ribbon, and a Vietnam Campaign Medal with Device.

From there, Veterans Affairs helped me get a job on the railroad as a diesel mechanic. I retired from the railroad with a shoulder disability after 35 years.

I am a life member of the Westerlo Volunteer Fire Company and worked with the Westerlo Rescue Squad for 15 years as a driver and emergency medical technician.

I am running for office because I want to see things develop and want to make decisions to help the town. I believe certain things need to happen so, when asked if I were interested in running to be town councilman, I was honored to take the nomination as we are in a day and age where it’s no longer business as usual and people vote for the person and not for a party, making their own decisions.

Going forward, a priority would be to see high-speed internet and cable brought to the entire town of Westerlo for the benefit of everyone, but mainly for our children. Technology makes our kids competitive and successful and today computers are a critical layer of all our lives. We want the best for our children so they can compete in today’s world and perhaps we would be able to keep our children here as they become adults.

We not only need technology, we need new businesses to support our town. Businesses help pay the taxes and lessen the burden on our citizens and need technology to survive. This in turn would bring new people to our town, which would lower everyone’s taxes.

Our town needs all residents to be involved in making decisions for Westerlo, not just eight or nine individuals along with the board members and town employees. That is less than 1 percent of our citizens who are making decisions for all of us.

We need to have a mode of communication to keep all of the residents informed of what is being discussed at the board level at least five days prior to a board meeting, which all takes us to enhanced technology and good communication.

I think all in our society have a responsibility to make a contribution. I also believe we should discuss paying a grant writer to help bring grants to our small town to help pay for improvements, including for town buildings and fire company support.

In addition, we have to preserve our past. Cemeteries contain our ancestors, many who are veterans, and there is little money to take care of cemeteries. The preservation of our graveyards involves a wide range of disciplines, including landscape, historic and archival research, conservation, and at times even a structural engineer.

In other words, it is unlikely that any one organization can do everything on any cemetery preservation project. Many of our cemeteries within our town are hidden and overgrown. I saw one where the property owner’s children used it as a playhouse, knocking over stones. We need to address how to preserve our heritage together as a town along with the historians.

We need to beautify Westerlo and with views like these right in or outside the town (my wife loves taking pictures and is always complaining about the telephone and electric wires everywhere!), we don’t need people fighting against solar panels and how an internet tower looks miles away, or if someone might do some fracking (there seems to me a bigger concern of where Albany may pick to dump garbage — and the city is looking throughout the county) we need people who want to make Westerlo a beautiful country town with services again. We need change.

Richard Filkins

Republican candidate

for Westerlo Town Board

Editor’s note: See related story.