Amenia Strong: the issues, the candidates

AMENIA — The three candidates running on the independent Amenia Strong ticket in the Tuesday, June 22, New York Republican Primary understandably want to focus on issues other than Silo Ridge and assessments — they want to focus on the town and what they believe they can do better than those they are hoping to replace. All newcomers to the political game, Julie Doran is looking to unseat longtime town Supervisor Victoria Perotti, who is seeking her fifth two-year term leading the town, while Jamie Vitiello and Brad Rebillard are hoping to replace Councilmembers James Morris and Michele Somogyi, both of whom are seeking a second go-around at their four-year positions.

Julie Doran

Doran, a single mother of two, said she has a strong business background and has always “kept a close eye on the town’s budget, school taxes and always paid attention and had a hand on the pulse of what’s going on, but it wasn’t until I became so concerned with the mismanagement of the town’s money that I had to [get involved]. I was guilty of turning my head, but now I’m trying to participate.”   

While never serving on any town boards or committees, she does serve on groups like the private Amenia/Wassaic Coalition, which was founded by Silo Ridge and tries to bolster local organizations.

When asked to talk about specifics that she would focus on as town supervisor, Doran replied, “How about eliminating things from the budget? Like the youth program. From 2019 to 2020, the budget went down in one year $40,000. It eliminated two summer programs completely, when it wiped out Little League, sadly enough. It doesn’t make any sense, why are we cutting youth programs, but we can afford to spend $1.1 million on a heating system for Town Hall?”

She added, “We are one of the richest towns in Dutchess County. We should be able to build a septic system and a new firehouse. Let’s move forward.”

It’s worth noting that the governor had issued a number of Executive Orders during the pandemic limiting many youth activities, as children weren’t yet vaccinated and COVID numbers were raging. The town plans to reinstate many of its summer recreation programs, including baseball, according to Perotti, in the 2022 budget. 

Jamie Vitiello

Running mate Vitiello agrees Amenia has a lot to offer, and thinks he can help.

Currently he’s the deputy civil defense coordinator with the Department of Emergency Response, an unpaid position similar to the many governmental roles he’s held over the years. 

Vitiello recently sold Vitech Systems Group, a tech company he founded and ran for 24 years. He also moved to Amenia with his wife and two children; they live in Silo Ridge.  

“I feel like I am in a once in a 100-year opportunity,” he said. “Amenia has to decide what it wants to be… it’s complicated to fulfill what it can be. It needs affordable housing, it needs workforce housing. That ties a little to potentially needing some semblance of a wastewater system downtown. I don’t see it on a trend to synthesize right now as it’s currently being driven. I think that could be a hugely missed opportunity, but it’s loaded with potential.”

He added there’s a divide between the Silo Ridge community, which pays about “$70,000 per house in real estate taxes a year with no tax breaks… and taxes have gone up.” Vitiello added the developers have “an ultimate vision to have 245 C/Os [Certificates of Occupancy], or doorbells, which could be condos or houses,” which would add significantly to the tax base.

“They are fully contributing,” he said of Silo residents. “This year, Silo Ridge made up almost 40% of the tax base of the entire town of Amenia, with roughly 50 houses that have C/Os with a town that has 1,600 houses. It’s stunning actually.”

He also addressed claims Silo Ridge did not live up to its commitment when it came to town to do things for the community, like build a wastewater system. He recounted what he was told by the partners at Silo, adding he didn’t know the information first hand.

“The investors behind Silo purchased property, and still own it, 6 acres specifically for a wastewater plant, and offered to fully service a 25-year bond for the plant, but the town turned them down,” said Vitiello. “The town only wanted to do it if Silo gave them the money all up front. It’s so frustrating.”

Perotti, though, said at the time the town’s Wastewater Committee had garnered a $3 million matching grant, and Silo refused to come up with the matching $1.5 million. She also noted Silo fell flat on other commitments, “like installing a sound system in the auditorium of Town Hall and  fixing the bathrooms in the back of the auditorium; the only thing they did was paint the auditorium. All the things they promised never happened.”

But Vitiello said Silo Ridge does contribute to the community, and gave a prime example.

It’s a “significant contributor; we just formed a Silo Ridge foundation exclusive for the purpose to raise money from Silo members to contribute to the community, called the Amenia/Wassaic Coalition,” he said. “When the pandemic began, County Executive Marc Molinaro called me and said the food banks are in serious trouble, and the county doesn’t have a budgetary way to restock them. Can you guys raise money from Silo Ridge? We raised $90,000 in like three days.”

Which led Vitiello to address a question about his relationship with Molinaro, a close friend. He was even Molinaro’s best man at his wedding. Some have raised concerns that the outgoing county exec, leaving due to term limits, cherry picked his friend to sit on the Town Board so he and the rest of the Amenia Strong candidates, if victorious, would have a 3-5 majority and could appoint a new assessor when Boyrk’s term expires — ensuring Silo Ridge a new assessment  — and the town and county many millions in future tax dollars.

“I hadn’t heard that. I absolutely acknowledge Marc is my dear friend,” Vitiello said. “That friendship is born of the both of us really caring about Dutchess County, of public service, and that continues to be the basis of our friendship — we love this place. We want what’s good for it. I can’t think of a single reason why it benefits Marcus for me to be on the Town Board… there’s no upside to him… I’ve never run for public office, so I may pick his brain and that may aggravate him. There’s no subplot here around a benefit as to me being on the Town Board.”

As to whether Amenia Strong is “just a shill for Silo Ridge,” and if an Amenia Strong victory would turn Amenia into a company town, Vitiello said absolutely not.

“I would be running for Town Board even if I lived outside of Silo,” he said. “This is important.”

Brad Rebillard

Rebillard, born and raised in Amenia and the longtime owner of Dutchess Country Realty in Millerton, has a lengthy record of community service. Not only has he served on the now defunct Millerton Lions Club for many years (he once served as its president), he’s now a member of the Amenia Lions Club; he’s also served with many other local organizations and is a member of both the Amenia Wastewater Committee and an alternate on the town’s Zoning Board of Appeals (ZBA).

His wife, Jeanne, is running for one of two seats on the Dutchess County Republican Committee in the primary; she has her own public relations firm and currently does public relations for Silo Ridge. She is not running on the Amenia Strong ticket.

Like his running mates, Rebillard tried to distance Amenia Strong from Silo Ridge and its lawsuit against the town.

“I don’t think any of the lawsuits are tied to just Silo Ridge,” he said, stressing he wants to remain positive and look forward. “Even without the numbers, where’s the money going, even though we have all this revenue?”

 This is Rebillard’s first time running for political office; he said he was drawn to the Amenia Strong slate because he’s concerned with the town’s lack of communication and “unaccountable spending,” adding “I feel like it’s my time to serve the community and the town that I call my home.”  

Rebillard added, “We need to stimulate community involvement and identify community needs and community awareness and develop a community-wide vision and plan and path to implement it. That’s not in the works that I’ve seen. They’ve cut the recreation budget in 2020, and moneys weren’t put back, even though we knew we could see light at the end of the tunnel with COVID vaccinations.”

Rebillard called Amenia a “pass-thru town,” and said that its government should do more to encourage economic growth. He cited Four Brothers as one example of a business with “innovative ideas” that should be encouraged by the town. 

“Enhancing community awareness, and the development of a positive vision of downtown Amenia is something that needs to be encouraged by our boards,” he said, adding the closure of businesses like Monte’s Local Kitchen and Tap Room was a missed opportunity for the town.

Perotti noted, however, that the town has been dealing with unique challenges, added expenses and dwindling revenue — all thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic. Yet somehow it still managed to welcome nine new businesses to open downtown in the last year, something she is especially pleased to mention.   

“We have a wonderful town,” she said.

Primary Election details

According to the Dutchess County Board of Elections, there are 2,442 registered voters in the town of Amenia, which has a population of 4,314, according to the 2010 Census (the last on record); 723 of them are Republican (including 335 women and 388 men) — versus 835 Democrats — those registered Republicans are qualified to vote in the June 22 primary.

Qualified voters are instructed to head to the Wassaic firehouse, at 27 Firehouse Road, for the Republican Primary, from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. The Wassaic firehouse will be the sole polling place in the town of Amenia for the primary.

To read profiles on all of the candidates running in the June 22 Amenia Republican Primary, go to www.tricornernews.com.

To read all about Amenia Strong, turn to this week’s front page.