Another long one…I don’t think it’s possible to expect one hour meeting anymore, there are so many things happening – and that’s a good situation.

We started out with a candidate guest, Gene Hoffman (D) who is running for Jay FD Commissioner on December 14. Gene has an extensive fire service background so he’d be an asset to the department. Please mark your calendar if you live in the Jay Fire District, go to the fire station and vote! There will be more information about the voting process in the Jay News as we get closer to the election. I’ve lived in Jay for a while and I never voted for Commissioner because it wasn’t publicized.

We discussed the election results in Jay, Wilmington and for the first time, Chesterfield. We’ve been asked by the County Dems to reach out to Chesterfield, our neighbors, and help them get them established…just like Keene did for us 31 meetings ago.

I’ve written post election summaries on our Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/groups/391449988318071) please join that if you’re interested in reading them. Overall it was a good night for Dems. In Jay Matt Stanley (D) won as Town Supervisor and Knut Sauer (D) was reelected to Town Council. Olivia Dwyer (D) came within 18 votes of winning the other Council seat. Carol Greenley-Hackel (R) was elected to Town Clerk with 80% of the vote. I’m really impressed with the new town leadership team. They have to work together to manage a new era while respecting what makes our town unique.

In Wilmington, a Dem who ran as an Independent, Tim Follos, scored an impressive victory on Town Council. I hope our committee will hear from Tim at a future meeting.

Chesterfield was interesting, too. Andrea Baer (D), first time Town Council candidate, was defeated by two Rs but she ran a strong campaign. I hope we can hear from Andrea in a future meeting.

The questions were a huge disappointment and if you are interested in my analysis, please check out our FB page. The NY state Dems failed to educate the public on the questions, while the Republicans spent $3 million to defeat the three questions related to voting and election reform.

On that subject, we passed a resolution calling for the replacement of the state Dem leadership team. This is the third controversal failure of leadership. When completed I will add that to the Nov 30 ECDC agenda and hope that neighboring towns join our initiative.

We discussed the proposed development in Jay and the need for residents to send comments to the APA. I posted links to the comment form on our FB page and in the JCN.

We discussed school board elections, which are conducted in May. I’ll get more information on the process – another unpublicized event – so we can recruit interested candidates. I’ve asked Joe DeMarco, past school board member, to advise us on the process.

Finally (whew!) there’s the NY state marijuana law, effective on Jan 1. Towns can opt out of two parts of the legalization. the first involves allowing cannibis dispensaries and the second involves allowing lounges where marijuana could be purchased and consumed. The Town of Jay will discuss a motion to opt out at a December 9 meeting in the Community Center. Residents need a lot more information prior to this meeting, and I hope to either read about it in the JCN – or write about it.

Our next meeting is Dec 13.