Supervisor candidates to debate on Tuesday

Chamber of Commerce hosting the event at Warwick Valley Community Center Warwick—Town of Warwick Supervisor Michael Sweeton and his challenger, Penny Steyer, will face off in a debate Tuesday evening at the Warwick Valley Community Center. The debate is being sponsored by the Warwick Valley Chamber of Commerce and begins at 7:30 p.m. Chris Mele from the Times-Herald Record will moderate the event. Questions will come from a group of local journalists including Ron Nowak, Greenwood Lake News, Linda Smith Hancharick, The Warwick Advertiser, and Frank Truat, WTBQ radio. Sweeton, a Republican, has been the town’s supervisor since 2002 A big focus of his tenure in office has been on preserving open space throughout the town through farmland preservation, cluster developments and by creating the Community Preservation Fund. He and his wife, Deborah, are owners of Technigrowers Greenhouses, Inc., in Warwick. Steyer, a Democrat, is active in several community organizations, including serving as chairperson of the town’s Architectural Review Board and as a founding member of the Warwick Independent Business Alliance. She is interested in land use and preservation, as well as in helping businesses thrive in the local economy. She has owned Penra Liquors in the Village of Warwick for nearly 20 years. The panelists will alternate in asking two questions. As members of the public arrive, they will be given an index card on which they may write a question. After the panelists’ questions are asked and answered, the moderator will choose a question from the public, which the panelists will pose. The candidates will take turns answering the questions. Both Sweeton and Steyer will make three-minute opening and closing statements. With the retirement of longtime Judge Daniel Coleman, there also is a race for judge in the Town of Warwick. The two candidates - Richard Farina and Nancy Brenner D’Angelo, justices in the Village of Warwick and the Village of Greenwood Lake respectively - will make statements at the end of the debate. Two councilmen—Leonard DeBuck and James Gerstner—are running unopposed. The election will take place on Tuesday, Nov. 6, from 6 a.m. until 9 p.m. Essential Information: What: Town of Warwick Supervisor Debate Where: Warwick Valley Community Center, 11 Hamilton Avenue, Warwick When: Tuesday, October 23, 2007 Time: 7:30 p.m.