NEW SCOTLAND — Daniel Mackay and his wife, Jean, married in a historical barn in New Scotland decades ago. Mackay resigned from the town board Wednesday, after saving the historical LeVie-Hilton barn from demolition.

Mackay starts a new job next week as executive director for the Connecticut Trust for Historic Preservation, a statewide not-for-profit advocacy organization that supports re-using Connecticut’s historic buildings.

“It’s an important step in professional development in the field that is not available to me here in New York State,” Mackay told The Enterprise.

His wife is the director of communication and public outreach for the Erie Canalway National Heritage Corridor. She will join him in Connecticut after they sell their home, Mackay said.

“She’s sort of jumping off the cliff with me,” Mackay said. “We’re good at adventure.”

Public service

“I’m a politician by default, and a public servant by choice,” Mackay told The Enterprise about his five years on the town board. “I’m most proud of being an honest, straight-forward member of the town board — someone who has led with my heart as much as my head.”

“We are going to miss him,” New Scotland Supervisor Thomas Dolin told The Enterprise in an email. “He and his wife, Jean, were key participants in the battle eight years ago to prevent the construction of big-box stores in the Town. 

“Since joining the town board five and one-half years ago, he has been a major contributor,” Dolin continued. “The board has been relying on him to help manage our response to the attempts to expand the gas pipeline and electrical transmission lines that pass through the town, and, most recently, he has taken the lead in attempting to preserve the LeVie barn.

“I have relied heavily on his advice and support,” Dolin wrote, “and I thank him for the extensive time and effort he has given to the town of New Scotland.  We all wish him well in his new position.”    

Mackay’s resignation will be effective at the end of June. The town board may appoint someone to fill Mackay’s seat through the end of December, Dolin told The Enterprise by phone, or the board may function with four board members for the next six months. The board will check with state Election Law for guidance, Dolin said.

“It hasn’t been resolved yet,” he said.  

According to Democratic Commissioner Matthew Clyne of the Albany County Board of Elections, the town board can appoint someone to fill Mackay’s seat now. An appointment would not conflict with summer deadlines for filing to run in the fall election.

“It’s early enough in the season,” Clyne said.

A new appointee could choose to run in the fall election to fill the remainder of Mackay’s term that expires in December 2017.

“So now,” Mackay told The Enterprise, “three seats on the board will be up for election, plus the supervisor’s position.”

Dolin’s term ends this year; he announced earlier that he would not seek re-election. The terms of two other board members, William Hennessy Jr. and Patricia Snyder, expire in December.

“The passage of the expanded ethics law was a very important upgrade for the town of New Scotland,” Mackay said. “It has had its intended consequences…transparency.”

“Sequentially, the next thing that happened was the passage of the 50,000-square-foot size cap” for commercial development, he said.

“It allowed the community to let go of its breath…about retail in the commercial zone,” he said.

Mackay said that the newly-appointed study advisory committee will create “new language for zoning” with its hired consultant, and “will have impressive results. I look forward to seeing the results of that.”

Mackay said that the town board has faced “bigger issues in the past, but that the board hasn’t had the interest or the expertise to wrap” its collective mind around solutions.

For issues like the proposed Kinder Morgan gas pipeline expansion, Mackay said, “My professional background allowed the town board to understand the infrastructure projects” and their potential effects for the town board.

Mackay worked diligently to keep the LeVie-Hilton barn from being destroyed during a subdivision development; the huge century-old barn is slated to be moved within the same neighborhood to the nearby rail trail for public use. The transaction, Mackay said, is not yet final.

“My departure requires me to walk away from the barn,” he said. “I feel most responsible for it — I do believe we are heading toward a positive outcome with the community. It’s clear that my effort over the last year and a half to raise the profile on that barn — we do have the resources and the political connections and the political willpower to effect that save.”

When the elimination of the barn for the housing development was first proposed, Mackay said, the barn’s destruction was a foregone conclusion, but the town rallied.

“ ‘No, we don’t have to put up with that as an answer,’ ” Mackay said, recalling the movement to save the barn. “The community got behind that quickly. That’s the most difficult thing to walk away from.”

Family life

Mackay said that his new employer contacted him and urged him to apply for the job.

“It was an opportunity that was encouraged and presented to me,” he said. “It appears to be a very good fit.”

Mackay’s family has been active in the school district and the town. His wife, Jean, coached several Odyssey of the Mind teams in Voorheesville, Mackay said. Their two sons, Jonah, a Voorheesville graduate, and Ben, a senior in Voorheesville, helped them meet friends in the community, he said.

Ben Mackay was named after the Bennett Hill Farm, in Clarksville, Mackay said. He will serve as salutatorian of his class this month.

“We were very pleased to hear that,” Daniel Mackay said. “It’s a nice honor. He’s had a very good career there.”

Jean Mackay “will remain working for the canalway until we begin our move,” he said. “She’s been very supportive of my pursuing this position. We leave a supportive network of friends.”