KNOX—The Knox Democrats are hoping this town election will go more smoothly than the last one. The Republicans are looking to gain more ground.

Two years ago, the state Supreme Court upheld a Republican challenge that election paperwork was handed in too late to put the Democrats’ names on the ballot. Forced to run a write-in campaign, the Democrats lost two seats on the town board in a town they dominate, two to one.

Though the two board seats contested two years ago are not up for re-election, if the Republicans win a seat this year, they will have a majority on the five-member town board.

Michael Hammond, the long-time supervisor, retained his seat two years ago with a write-in campaign.

Former Councilman Dennis Decker lost his seat two years ago. Now, he’s trying to get it back, running in the stead of Democratic Councilman Charles Conklin, who is not seeking reelection as he fights cancer.

Two Democrats and one Republican are running for two seats; the top two vote-getters Nov. 8 will assume office Jan. 1, as will the winner in the race for supervisor.

Despite the party split, there has been little arguing among the town board members in the past two years. Almost all votes have been unanimous.

Knox has a population of about 2,600 and a budget of about $1.6 million. The part-time supervisor makes $14,525 annually, and the part-time town board members make $3,325. The supervisor’s term is for two years, and the board members’ for four years.

The issues

The Enterprise interviewed the candidates for supervisor and town board and asked questions on five issues:

—Growth: If Tech Valley becomes a reality in the Capital Region, some say it would mean a lot of people would move to the Hilltowns. Candidates were asked how they would balance that with preserving the town’s farms and open space.
—Zoning: Candidates were asked if it is time to review the Knox zoning ordinance. For example, the "one-cut rule," which allows property owners to subdivide once every 18 months without coming before the planning or zoning boards, has been on the books since 1975, though the planning and zoning boards have recommended eliminating it. Candidates were asked if the zoning ordinance will adequately serve the future needs of the town, and if not, how it should be changed.

—The town hall: The town has been planning on expanding the town hall and making it accessible to the disabled for years and even had an architect draw up preliminary plans. The project has stalled due to cost. Candidates were asked how the town should proceed from here and how much of a priority the project is.

—Taxes: Candidates were asked how important it is for the town to keep taxes low and how it should do that.

—Revaluation: The town has been discussing bringing its assessments up to 100 percent of true value. Last time it was done was in the 1990’s. Candidates were asked if town-wide revaluation is necessary, and if so, how soon.

SUPERVISOR

Michael Hammond

Michael Hammond has been supervisor of Knox since 1974. After 31 years in office, Hammond, a Democrat, still wants the job.
"I like what I’m doing and I like what I contribute to the community," Hammond said.

Hammond, 62, is a native of Fort Henry, in the Adirondacks. He is a former General Electric employee and a retired Troy High School teacher. Now, he owns and operates the Mountain Wood Shop in Berne.

Among the town’s accomplishments during Hammond’s last term, was completing the construction of a children’s soccer field at the town park.
"We’re looking forward to our first soccer game on our first soccer field," Hammond said.
On possible growth, Hammond said, "We have addressed a lot of those issues with the master plan in the past. We would be willing to revisit our master plan to make sure it’s commensurate with our future needs."
The town needs to preserve its farms and open spaces, Hammond said, "because that is what most of the people that live in our community come here for, this rural style of life."

On the zoning ordinance, Hammond said, if he is elected for another term, he is planning on having the town review its zoning laws.
"I think that is going to be a request of the board. We should be looking at it," Hammond said.
On the town hall project, Hammond said, "The priority is very high." The town needs more space, he said.
"The board has reviewed the plans. We were sort of set back with the cost of the project. What we’re doing at this time is searching for funding," he said.

Primarily, he said, the town will search out grants to help pay for the project.

On taxes, Hammond said Knox has been able to hold its tax rate to small increases for the past few years.
"To maximize the amount of services that we can provide for our dollars is probably the best approach to maintaining a good tax rate," he said.

On revaluation, Hammond said the town will start a revaluation project as soon as the new assessor, Russ Pokorney, completes his training.

A mass revaluation project gives everyone in the town a chance to make sure their assessments properly reflect what their property is worth, said Hammond, who oversaw the last revaluation project.

Mark Von Haugg

Republican challenger Mark Von Haugg is running on a platform of more open government and greater involvement of the town board and zoning board in decision making, something he says he hasn’t seen in recent years.
"They’re going to be involved in projects," Von Haugg said, "not just say yeah or nay to a bill."
Von Haugg, 64, is making his first run for town office. He admits Hammond has done a good job in his 31 years. "I’ve even voted for him sometimes," he said.
However, Von Haugg said, "Some apathy set it, and I think he would like some time off."
Von Haugg is self-employed in the telecommunications industry. He describes his education as "some college." He’s lived in Knox for 30 years.

Von Haugg is also running on the Independence and Conservative party lines.
On zoning, Von Haugg said the balance between agriculture and growth should be kept "with the rules that are laid down."

However, he said, those rules are inaccessible. There is no written process for making applications to the planning and zoning boards, something he hopes to change.
"Everything is done as it comes up," Von Haugg said. "The way it appears to me now is it’s helter-skelter."
As far as growth in the Hilltowns, Von Haugg said, "You can’t stop people from building. It’s a free country."
Although he agrees with those who want to preserve the area’s rural character, he said, "At the same time, all the towns and counties and states overtax farmers. If they have an opportunity to make a buck and parcel up their land, you can’t blame them."
On the town hall project, Von Haugg said, "The town hall does need more room, but we do not need to spend $800,000 on it."

He suggested a steel building attached to one end or the other of the current town hall would do the job.
"We don’t need a Taj Mahal," Von Haugg said.

On taxes, Von Haugg said they can be kept down with good planning and good management. School taxes, which are out of the town’s control, are more of a problem in Knox than property taxes, he said.
On revaluation, he said, "If it’s to raise taxes, we don’t need reassessment."

However, he said, assessments have to be examined closely around the town to make sure they are all done fairly and equally.
"It has to be looked at on an even basis," Von Haugg said.

TOWN BOARD

Nicholas Viscio

Behind Hammond , Councilman Nicholas Viscio is the longest-serving member of the Knox Town Board. After 12 years, he’s running for a fourth term.
"I’ve enjoyed seeing the town progress," Viscio said of his time on the board. "Knox is a very unique town in many ways. It has the independence of a rural community."

Viscio said he enjoys watching the outcome of the town board’s decisions.
"It’s a good feeling to get something done—on occasion," he joked.

Viscio believes the town board is more than the sum of its parts.
"I think it’s important that we can all have individual goals, but the greatest claim is what we accomplish as a board," Viscio said. "You try to maintain the integrity of the board, to work as a group, losing the ‘I did this’ and ‘I did that’ mentality."

Viscio believes the town board operates that way now and should continue to operate that way.

Viscio, 49, has lived in Knox since 1977. He works as the producer/director of video services at his alma mater, Guilderland High School. He said he has coursework in film and has qualified as a flight instructor examiner with the Experimental Aircraft Association. He and his wife own Helderberg Design, LLC., in Wright, which makes powered parachutes.

Viscio said his record on the town board speaks for itself.
"I work with everybody on the board, I respect everybody on the board, and I keep in communication with everybody on the board," Viscio said. "That will never change."
On growth, Viscio said, "I think that a lot of the answers to that are in the comprehensive plan."

Planning, he said, is one of his main interests on the town board.

Because of Knox’s topography, Viscio said, growth in the town is restricted to a certain extent by a lack of water. There’s no public water in the town and wells can’t be too close together.
"Knox isn’t the kind of place where you’re going to plop 1,500-square-foot lots side by side where they’re all together," he said.

However, he said, the town is slowly growing and the board needs to be aware of it and plan accordingly.
"We need to continue to take a look at open spaces in the town," Viscio said. "It can really be said that people care about the open spaces."
On zoning, he said the town’s comprehensive plan is still "a very valid document that pertains to looking down the road." However, he said, there are issues that could be revisited.
"One of the calls to issue was lot size. The other one was dealing with the one-cut rule," Viscio said. "I would see that the main job in continuing on the town board is to continue to work on the planning issues, to parse out some of these things and bring them to public hearing"The big reason they are trigger issues is because the public hasn’t had a chance to address those issues."

On the town hall, Viscio said expansion is necessary.
"During a court night, there are people huddled in the hallway," he said.

The preliminary plans provided by the town’s architect are too expensive to build, Viscio said. The town needs to take a close look at them to decide what to cut and what to keep, he said.
"We need to get into those plans, take a look at the real cost-saving elements," Viscio said.

The last thing Viscio wants to do is put the town into debt paying for the project.
"We don’t want to do that to the taxpayers. I wouldn’t want to do it to myself," he said.

On taxes, Viscio called himself a conservative Democrat.
"I work for low taxes every time I sit at that table," he said. "There’s nobody more low-tax oriented in the community."

If he is re-elected, Viscio said, he will continue to keep a close eye on the town’s spending, balancing price with need.
"Doing your duty in a small-town government requires that you’re in tune to the wants and the resources," Viscio said.

On revaluation, Viscio said that, although assessments have fallen to about 75 percent of actual value, since the town keeps its assessment inventory up to date, a revaluation project is not as major a task as it was last time it was done.
"The type of work that’s needed to do revaluation is not nearly what it was in the nineties," Viscio said.

In approaching a revaluation project, Viscio said, the town also has to keep in mind the real-estate market, which is starting to return to normal after a boom. If the town had revaluated a year ago, he said, assessments now would be around 110 percent of actual value.

Because of these things, Viscio said revaluation is needed eventually, but it’s not urgent. He predicted the town would do such a project in the next two or three years.

Dennis Decker

Democrat Dennis Decker served two terms on the town board before losing his re-election bid in the turmoil of 2003. He was planning on running in 2007, so as not to challenge any of the Democrats, but agreed to run this year after Councilman Conklin dropped out of the race.
"I want to get back to the table and try to finish up on some of the projects that we started when I was on the board," Decker said.

Decker cited his experience and his fit with the board before as reasons for voting for him.
"We were a pretty cohesive group," Decker said. "We all worked pretty well together."

Decker has lived in Knox since he was three. His is a graduate of Berne-Knox-Westerlo High School and a veteran of the United States Navy.

After completing his Navy service, Decker joined the Carpenters’ Union Local 117 in Albany as an apprentice. In 1983, he went to work for Niagara Mohawk, now called National Grid, where he continues to work as a construction/rigging mechanic.

Decker has been a member of the Knox Volunteer Fire Company, the town’s emergency preparedness director, a Berne-Knox-Westerlo Little League coach, and a member of the Rotterdam Elks.

On growth, Decker said the town’s comprehensive plan should be able to deal with most problems that will arise.

Zoning issues, like the one-cut rule, don’t seem to be a problem in the town, he said.
"I really don’t see it as a big issue," Decker said. "If something comes up, we have a planning board, a zoning board, and a comprehensive master plan."
Decker noted that the one-cut rule used to be common in other towns, and it was called the "father-son clause."
On the town hall, Decker said, "There definitely is a need for expansion."

Many of the town officers, like the assessor and the tax collector, are working out of their homes, he said, and the court is crowded.
"Everything has outgrown its usefulness there," he said.

Since he is not currently on the town board, Decker said he is not very familiar with the architect’s designs for the town hall. If it is too expensive, he said, the town could consider finding alternative sources of funding, like grant money.
"There are other avenues to use without trying to raise tax dollars," Decker said.

On taxes, Decker said the town worked hard to keep costs down when he was on the board and that would continue if he were elected.
"I don’t want to say that we’re penny pinchers, but we’re pretty frugal," he said. "We don’t really spend foolishly. Things are looked at. Things are analyzed."
For example, when he was on the board, it came up with a plan of selling old highway equipment "while it still had value instead of running it into the ground," Decker said.

On revaluation, Decker said the last revaluation project was good for the town. The state Office of Real Property Services recommends doing it every five to seven years, Decker said, and that time is up.
"I think it’s something that has to be planned for and it needs to be done," Decker said. "If you don’t keep up with that, it just makes everything all out of whack."

Helene O’Clair
"I decided to run because I’m a citizen who wants to make a difference. I have the time, the desire to do it, and the energy," said Republican Helene O’Clair, who is making her first run for the Knox Town Board. "I think I have my finger on the pulse of the town, so to speak."

O’Clair wants the town to be prepared for the future.
"I would like to see us have a five-, 10-, and 20-year plan and have it be a living document and have it be such that it reflects the needs of the different groups in the town, like the senior citizens or the youth," O’Clair said.

O’Clair, 57, has lived in Knox for over 25 years. She’s retired as a worker for the New York State Thruway Authority. She holds a bachelor’s degree in business administration from The College of Saint Rose, with a minor in accounting, which, she said, should come in handy on the town board.

O’Clair would like the town government to be more accountable to the citizens. She supports making meeting minutes easily available, either at the following meeting or on-line. The planning and zoning boards should also be making regular reports to the town board, she said.
"I believe it’s lacking," O’Clair said. "I don’t see them coming to meetings and presenting either handwritten minutes or an oral report. They’re appointed by the board and the board needs to know what’s going on."

She also supports efforts to bring senior housing into the Hilltowns, and said she will work to make sure that senior housing includes assisted living.
On growth, O’Clair said, "We need to be ready for it so we’re not surprised, so we’re not fighting it off, we’re managing it."

Preserving open space and farmland is very important, she said.
"We moved to this town because of the ruralness. We don’t want a suburb. We don’t want a city," O’Clair said.

The zoning ordinance, she said, needs to be part of the long-range planning process. She said she doesn’t know if things like the one-cut rule are good or bad, but they need to be examined.
On the town hall, she said, "I think it’s critical that we move on it."
Making the building accessible to the disabled is necessary and an unavoidable cost, she said. But, she said, echoing Von Haugg’s comments, "We do not need a Taj Mahal."
"We just need a little bit bigger office, meeting room, et cetera," O’Clair said. "I think we need to look at the plans and look at where we can start cutting."

The process, she said, should be public.
"We’re not going to please everybody"But they still have the right to know," O’Clair said.
On taxes, O’Clair commended the town board for keeping taxes down. However, she said, "If growth continues and our school taxes continue to go up, we really need to look at what type of business structures we can get in here."

Knox could use a business district to help with the tax burden, but it needs to be planned, she said.
"You want to be sitting all fat and sassy and here comes a big-box store and you don’t want it," O’Clair said.
On revaluation, O’Clair said, "I don’t think it’s critical. It’s not been 20 or 30 years since the last one."