Cortland Standard .net

From staff reports
Among the highlights of Wednesday’s local village elections are contested races for mayor in Homer and Marathon and contested trustee seats in Dryden and Homer.
There are also unopposed mayoral elections in Dryden, Groton and McGraw, and unopposed trustee elections in Groton, Marathon and McGraw. One of two McGraw trustee seats will be filled by a write-in vote, as there is only one candidate on the ballot.
Elections will take place from noon to 9 p.m.
Dryden
Running unopposed for the two-year term of mayor is former Republican Mayor Reba L. Taylor. The candidates running for two open two-year village trustee seats are Democrats Michael J. Murphy and Reginald Blomfield-Brown and Republicans Leslie E. Hibbert III and Melita J. Mertz.
Taylor is running to succeed James Zimmer, who is not seeking re-election.
Taylor was the mayor from 1997 to 2009.
There are four people running for two village trustee seats, both for two-year terms.
Running for re-election is Murphy, a member of the Protecting Dryden Party.
Murphy said Thursday he would like to fight village police department reductions and ensure the implementation of a resolution to use Dryden Lake as the major water source for the village.
Murphy, 70, of 34 Lee Road, is seeking his second consecutive term. He also served one previous term in the 1980s.
Blomfield-Brown, 45, a Democrat who lives at 24 Ferguson Road, said he would like to see taxes lowered in the village.
Mertz and Hibbert could not be reached for comment Saturday.
Board member Lisa Valentinelli’s term is set to expire in April and she is not seeking re-election.
The election will be held in Dryden Village Hall at 16 South St. on the second floor.
Groton
Republican Chris Neville is running unopposed for the two-year term for mayor and trustee candidates Michael G. Holl and Elizabeth T. Conger are also running for two open two-year seats.
Neville is running for mayor since Republican Mayor Jeffrey Evener is not seeking re-election.
Holl has served on the board since 2013, and board member Conger was elected in 2001. They are Republicans.
The election will be held at the Village of Groton hall at 143 Cortland St.
Homer
Running for the two-year mayor term are incumbent Republican Mayor Genevieve Suits and Republican candidate Ed Finkbeiner. Three candidates running for two open seats for two-year terms as village trustees are Democrat Suzanne Riley and Republicans Kevin Slack and Eugene Smith.
Republican Suits, 46, of 18 Balmoral Way is running for her third two-year term as mayor. Suits was nominated by the Democratic Party after the Republicans failed to nominate her in January. In previous interviews with the Cortland Standard, Suits said she would like to see the Route 11 improvement work finished, a project she had started. She has also cited savings of keeping the village offices out of town hall.
Finkbeiner, 67, of 16 Warren St., is running for mayor for the first time. Finkbeiner has cited a lack of transparency from the village as a whole, making improvements in this area one of his priorities if he wins. He wants to move the village office back into town hall.
Democratic incumbent Riley, 59, of 13 Meadow Drive, is a hairdresser at Suzanne’s Salon and is running for village trustee after previously holding the position from 2001 to 2004. Riley said Friday evening she was appointed by Suits to be a trustee last year toreplace Alexandra Mulvihill. Riley said she hopes to see the infrastructure work that was started completed, and see all the business fronts in the village filled.
Slack, 55, of 11 N. West St., is running for his third term. In a debate held in February, Slack said while he supports modernity, he thinks Homer’s historic downtown district is something that continues to draw people and potential business owners to the village, and minimal, if any, changes should be made there.
Smith, 68, of 98 1/2 S Main St., is retired from the U.S. Navy after serving 22 years and then retired from being a financial advisor for Ameriprise Financial, a financial management company, in Cortland. Smith is running for the first time and would like to see the infrastructure work finished, such as cleaning up the entrances into the village. He would also like to use his financial experience in working on the budget.
The election will be held at the community building at 45 S. Main St. behind the village fire station.
Marathon
Democratic incumbent Mayor John Pitman and Republican candidate William McGovern are running for mayor. The two candidates for two open village trustee seats are Republicans Patricia McConnell and Donna Collins.
Pitman, 51, of 90 Cortland St., is running for his seventh two-year term as mayor. Pitman couldn’t be reached for comment this morning.
McGovern, 55, of 28 W. Main St., is running for mayor for the first time.
McGovern is a project engineer at Square Deal Machining Inc., and has completed his seventh term as a village trustee. McGovern said if he wins, he hopes to improve communication throughout the village to better serve residents.
McConnell, 66, of 1 South St., an incumbent, is retired from the Cortland County Department of Environmental Health and is running for her fourth term. McConnell said this morning she wants to continue as a trustee because she likes to be a part of the decision-making for the village.
Collins, 48, of 5 1/2 Academy St. is a branch manager for Key Bank on Tompkins Street in Cortlandville. She is running for village trustee for the first time and hopes to build a stronger community. Collins has been on the Marathon Maple Festival committee for10 years and also serves on the Cortland County United Way Board.
The election will be held at the Civic Center located at Brink and Peck streets.
McGraw
Mayor Al Stauber and Trustee Jim Field are running unopposed for re-election, while a second trustee seat will be filled by a write-in candidate, as there are no other candidates on the ballot. All of the seats carry two-year terms.
Stauber, 52, and Field, 48, are both running for their second terms.
Calls made to Stauber and Field were not returned as of press time this morning.
The election will be held at the community center located at 15 Clinton St.