Supporting Sweeton, Emmerick and Olsen

I happen to be a fan of Town Supervisor Mike Sweeton and his abilities. Therefore, I do not believe that Mike must be surrounded solely with fellow Republican employees and an all-Republican Town Board in order to continue to do a good job. In fact, in most other states local political elections are non-partisan, and political leaders rise because of their abilities, rather than party affiliation. This is because local issues are by their nature non-partisan. My conclusion is that it would be a big mistake to continue to exclude from our Town Board talented people who have contributed heavily to the community solely because of their Democratic party affiliation. This fall, exclusion becomes a real problem in the case of two such candidates - Kurt Emmerick and Bill Olsen - each of whom has solid professional qualifications and an outstanding record of community service. In fact, I believe that Emmerick and Olsen would provide a broader perspective about local issues, such as devising more options on how to utilize the former correctional facility to strengthen our tax base. Jerry Fincke Warwick