Prospective Projects are Main Motivation for Running

By Lindsay Suchow, News Editor

Jason West has announced that he will seek a second term as mayor of New Paltz when his Village Board position expires in May.

West said when he was first elected to office in 2003 as a 26-year-old on the Green Party ticket, he had no choice but to pick up where his predecessors left off.

“I’ve had a lot of projects over three-and-a-half years,” said West. “It should have been done years ago, but now I have finally finished what I have inherited and have begun new projects that were not on the table before.”

West said his first term was mostly spent “creating environmentally sound infrastructure,” such as utilizing solar panel energy at Village Hall and improving the village’s water and sewer system.

Now, West has even bigger plans for New Paltz-“real intensive projects”-which he hopes to set in motion if he is indeed elected to another four years in office.

Some of the largest projects that West has in mind are the construction of a bio-diesel fuel plant right here in the village (with intentions of running all village vehicles on natural fuel) and making a serious push for more affordable housing and urbanizing downtown.
“Only 25 percent of New Paltz residents own their own homes,” said West. “I’d like to do something about the cost of housing and encourage more development.”

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