Nyack, Sept 15: Democratic voters go to the polls today to choose a mayoral candidate. Polling places are open from 6a-9p. Don’t know where to vote? Visit the Polling Place Lookup page at the Rockland County Board of Elections to learn where to cast your vote.

You can find information about the four mayoral candidates at the Elections 2009 page on NyackNewsAndViews and at the Friends of The Nyacks Virtual Candidates Forum.

If you haven’t been keeping up with the campaigns, here are some Cliff Notes / SparkNotes on the candidates:

• Riverspace: Olive strongly supports. Hogan says concept is amazing but “there are far to many questions left unanswered.” Kavesh, Lorenzini say they favor but won’t commit without more info about the economics.
• Parking: All candidates say parking is one of the Village’s biggest problems. Olive favors building a $8-$30m parking garage; Hogan, Kavesh says it isn’t needed. Kavesh voted against the $11,000 Park Free Thursdays measure saying it ran counter to findings in the Jan 07 village parking study. Local business owner Olive says it’s still a good idea. Hogan voted for it, but also says “free parking is not the answer” to improving Nyack’s business climate. Lorenzini voted with trustees Kavesh and Parker for a scaled back program suggested by Nyack’s parking consultant then reversed her vote to vote for the current measure. Olive favors selling residential parking stickers.
• Infrastructure: Hogan says Nyack needs a “Big Dig”  project to address flooding to business and residential property caused by the stream running underneath downtown. Kavesh wants a long-term capital improvement plan to improve sidewalks, roads, sewers, water system, lighting, and parks. Olive includes the Gateway to Nyack on her list.
• Streetscape: All candidates say improving the look of downtown is as a priority.
• “One Nyack:” Candidates offered varying opinions on Governor Paterson’s village consolidation proposal. Regarding combining the river towns into a single unit or sharing services: Kavesh thinks some money might be saved but believes people would prefer the current access they have to local officials. Lorenzini thinks there are minimum savings — at the most one or two positions. Olive favors consolidating the river villages into a single government and says DPW and police are two areas where shared services would save money. Hogan thinks it would definitely save money — citing the DPW — but is skeptical that other villages would participate.
• Police: Hogan and Olive favor better police protection; Hogan says especially in Memorial Park. Hogan favors recreating a Nyack police department; Olive talks about sharing police services with adjacent villages instead of Orangetown.
• Memorial Park and the Marina: Are stated priorities for Hogan, Kavesh, Olive.
• Full time Mayor: Hogan, Lorenzini say village needs a mayor who can be devoted to the job fulltime.

Here are a few issues unique to each candidate:

• Olive: Encourage opening bed and breakfasts to make Nyack a tourist destination; hire a full-time village administrator; organize more cultural events;
• Kavesh: Zero based village budgeting; streaming video of village board meetings online.
• Hogan: Clean up downtown to increase value of ratable properties to provide more jobs and sustain Nyack’s dwindling middle class.
• Lorenzini: Promises to be a full time mayor and says she will use her experience to improve management of village government.

Special thanks to Palisades Hudson Financial Group LLC for their sponsorship of Election 2009 Coverage on NyackNewsAndViews.