Yorktown Town Board Race: Q&A with Rich Campanaro

Editor's Note: We asked the candidates for Yorktown Town Board – incumbent Terrence Murphy (R), Dorothy Forcina (R), incumbent Vishnu Patel (D) and Rich Campanaro (D) – a series of questions before the Election on Tuesday, Nov. 5. Below are Campanaro's responses.

Patch: Why did you decide to run for election?

Rich Campanaro: I have been blessed to live in this town my entire life. As a kid there was no greater place to grow up. Now I am raising my family here and see the same passion in my children when they talk about their town. There is no other place that my family would want to live. We have great schools, beautiful parks, incredible open space, and everything you could want to do from a recreation level.

I am running for Councilman because my only fear is that my kids like many of my former classmates might not be able to stay here as they enter adulthood. We need to make it more affordable for all our residents to be able to live in Yorktown. I would love to retire one day and stay in my home but the reality is that it might not be possible. Our tax base is upside down and we need to do something about it now.

Yorktown is at a pivotal crossroad and we need to do something to revitalize our commercial base to help offset our rising residential tax burden.

Patch: What personal or professional experiences qualify you to serve as a town board member?

Campanaro: It would be an honor to serve the residents of Yorktown and bring my  business experience to the town board. My background and experience make me a very qualified candidate and will work hard to make the people of our town proud.

For the last 20 years I have successfully worked in the field of business development and understand the concept of running a business and how to help businesses obtain the growth they need for success. I have had a great career and my work has helped numerous business owners, managers and executives prosper and provide for their families. In addition, I have also had vast experience as a union leader and have worked on negotiating union contracts and labor disputes. 

All of my experience would certainly be an asset to the town board and I would look to work directly with the businesses in our town to help them prosper into the future. The more our current business base prospers the more lucrative we will appear to other businesses looking to move into our town and the end result will be more tax contribution from the commercial  businesses to offset the high tax rate being levied on every home owner in town.

Patch: What are the top three issues facing town residents?

Campanaro: Taxes, taxes and taxes. 90 percent of tax base being paid by residents. The rising drug issues that are infecting our youth. Promoting business development while keeping us a green community. 

Patch: Describe your campaign platform or how you differentiate yourself from your opponents' platforms?

Campanaro: My platform is a simple one. Work to bring businesses back into Yorktown and fill up our vacant storefronts. We need to fill up the empty stores  before we start talking about developing more open space. Promote Yorktown as a business friendly town. Work with the school districts, town agencies and volunteer groups to ensure a high quality of life. Provide our youth with a healthy, safe environment that builds skills for growth and success later in life. Lobby the State to get funding for a drug control officer back on the Yorktown Police Department. 

Patch: Should you be elected, what would you like to achieve over the course of your term?

Campanaro: I hope to learn a lot when I first get in and to get a good understanding of how the different agencies in our town work together. There are many facets of our town and it will take some time to learn everything I need to know but I will work hard out of the gate and closely with our supervisor and other board members to start working on resolving the concerns of the residents and business owners of our town.

Over the four years I am looking to bring our commercial vacancy rates down and along with it the amount of town tax each property owner pays. I would like to work closely with our school districts to see what we as a town can do to help with combined services to help lower the school tax structure which is in the neighborhood of 72% of our tax allotment and to see how the town can assist the schools with the security and drug concerns we are all facing today.