Baisley
TOWN OF POUGHKEEPSIE – Former Councilman and Deputy Poughkeepsie
Town Supervisor Republican John Baisley was sworn in New Year’s
Day as town supervisor after having held office since May and facing no
opposition.
Baisley is a former commissioner for the New Hamburg Fire District, serving
seven years in that capacity, a Town of Poughkeepsie councilman since
2002, and has been a local business owner in New Hamburg since 1984.
Since Todd Tancredi left the position when appointed as Dutchess County
Office for the Aging director, Baisley said he has had a good team, with
few appointment changes, and although the board has a Republican majority,
he is proud of their ability to exercise bi-partisanship.
“We’ve had a very strong team and we never lost the whole
team. It’s always been one comes on, one comes off, and I think
bi-partisanly we work phenomenally together. We have one Democrat on the
board now, but we’re all treated as equals,” the supervisor
said. “We don’t persuade anybody to do anything. We work as
a team and the whole goal is to work for the Town of Poughkeepsie residents,”
he said.
Advocating continued bipartisanship is going to be a main focus during
his tenure.
“I didn’t think I’d ever get to this position. I think
it’s phenomenal and the support I got from my family and my friends
and some of the constituents that came out here and the party, the opposing
party – everybody came out today to support me,” said Baisley.
“It just shows that, as the center has stated many times over, ‘leave
the R at the door’. We leave our ‘R’s and ‘D’s
at the door,” he said.
Baisley said he will keep focusing on current water, sewer, highway and
infrastructure projects, as well as promoting IT development throughout
town departments. In that regard, a major project of focus will be the
$1.2 million IT upgrade project for the town’s police department
that will integrate it into the county’s system. The town has just
received a $280,000 grant from the county to that end and Baisley believes
this project will set an example for other municipalities regarding their
IT systems.
