NEW BERLIN – After initially advocating for her opponent, the incumbent of New Berlin’s mayoral race hopes to keep her seat in a write-in campaign.
Village Trustee Wade Schrag will appear as the sole mayoral candidate on the Village of New Berlin’s ballot Wednesday, but current Mayor Carol Riley has rescinded her earlier decision to retire and launched a write-in campaign.
Riley originally helped to gather the 50 local signatures needed for Schrag’s petition, which aided in placing him on the ballot in the first place.
The two candidates’ falling out began with a debate over the village’s decision to sell 10 acres of an athletic park, Fish Field, to Milford Academy for $46,000.
“I did not take out a petition because I was at that time ready to retire. I decided that I really need to run because of the Milford situation, and because I am already in the process of trying to acquire a grant to improve the village’s infrastructure and water system,” said Riley, who has been mayor for the last 14 years.
“I chose to run for village mayor this term, because I feel I can work with the rest of the village board members to improve our community for everyone, and bring some much-needed change to our village,” said Schrag, who has been on the village board for the past seven years and served as deputy mayor in 2008.
Elections will be held Wednesday at the village hall at 13 Main Street. The polls will be open from noon to 9 p.m. All voters must already be registered with the Chenango County Board of Elections. To write in a vote for Riley her name must be correctly spelled on the ballot (Carol Riley) in order for the vote to be correctly counted. Also running unopposed in Wednesday’s election are Village Board Trustee’s Terry Potter and Michael Conroe.
The New Berlin Village Board voted unanimously Feb. 9 to sell the Fish Field property to the academy following a debate between Schrag and Riley over the move.
At the meeting Riley argued for the immediate approval of the sale and summoned a number of local business leaders to the public meeting in support of the agreement.
Schrag voiced concern over the sale as did organizers of the local youth sports program, who inquired how the loss of the athletic fields might impact local programs.
Although differing on the timeline and the specifics of the agreement, both parties eventually agreed the move was in the long term best interest of the community and each voted to support the measure at the meeting.
“I understand the need to have programs like these for the children of our community. Investing in our youth, is the best step at strengthening our community and instilling family values and community involvement for future generations to come,” said Schrag.
Schrag said he hopes to implement an active village web site if elected that would contain meeting minutes and provide a place for citizens to offer feed back or find answers to commonly asked questions.
Riley said she was working closer to getting a piece of the $150 million federal stimulus package coming to New York State as part of President Barack Obama’s plan to stabilize the economy.
She hopes that funds from the grant could be used to aid the village’s aging water systems and to help demolish or restore the condemned 19th-century brick building at 2 N. Main St., in the heart of the community, Riley said.
“My 15 years of experience would give me a heads up on many of these issues. In the face of the economic crisis that we’re in right now, it’s in the best interest of the village to have someone with experience at the helm. I will continue to keep the taxes down, as I have done in the last 15 years, with very careful spending and tight control. To bring someone in right now with no experience could be a mistake,” she said.
Riley said she is a strong advocate of selling the 10 acres to Milford Academy and believes the sale will help encourage downtown New Berlin business.