Alexandria voters say no to changing highway, clerk jobs

ALEXANDRIA BAY, N.Y. (WWNY) - This week, voters in the Town of Alexandria voted to keep the highway superintendent and the town clerk as elected positions.

Voters rejected by wide margins proposals to change both jobs to ones which would be appointed by the town board. The vote was 1,234 to 486 for the town clerk and 1,255 to 455 for the highway superintendent.

Town officials said they were trying to save taxpayers money with the change, but they acknowledge the proposals were unpopular.

“The fact that changing it to appointed position would be taking away their right to vote on those two positions is a huge factor and I think that was a very convincing factor to the taxpayers,” said Brent Sweet, town supervisor.

Both highway superintendent Mike Tibbles and town clerk Jesse Hudon argued to keep their respective positions elected. They both say they are thankful for the support they received from the community.

“It’s overwhelming the amount of phone calls that people have made to me for the last 3 days, it’s just, I’m proud, I’m proud of my people in the town,” Tibbles said.

“The people believe in accountability and support of checks and balances that are in place. I want to thank the people who supported the right to vote for our elected officials," Hudon said in a statement.

Asked if the board would bring up the resolution again, Sweet said “I would not support that. If you look at the vote counts, it was very obvious how strong it was defeated.”

Both Tibbles and Hudon are up for re-election in 2021 and they both say they are excited to run again.

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