Round Lake Park slates differ on development

How best to improve the economic environment in Round Lake Park is an issue among the five candidates running for three seats on the village board.

The main difference between two slates of candidates is the timing of improvements along Route 134, which is the entry to town and the village's main commercial area.

Incumbent Robert Seminary is running with newcomers Patricia Graham and Robert Cerretti as the Vision of Integrity and Progress slate, which also includes Mayor Jean McCue.

They are being challenged by incumbent Martin Nelson III and newcomer Donna Cox, who with mayoral challenger Bill Baczek are running as the RLP for Change Party. Laure Frawley would have completed that slate as a trustee candidate, but she withdrew from the race.

A question on the April 7 ballot asks voters whether they want the village to issue $1.5 million in bonds to upgrade the area. The bonding authority comes because previously issued bonds for the water supply have been retired.

If voters agree, they still get a tax reduction of about $45 per year. If they disagree, the reduction would be $160 to $180 per year.

The issue has so divided opinion that two incumbents who have worked closely together on the board and consider each other friends are opposing each other.

Nelson said he was asked by Seminary to run on the same ticket but couldn't accept the invitation. He said talks about Main Street have continued for years and there are more important considerations.

"It doesn't need to be done, as a matter of fact, today. What we need to do is stabilize the village," he said.

Seminary says the corridor is important.

"Main Street is important for our businesses. I want to attract people to drive through Round Lake Park instead of around Round Lake Park," he said. Cerretti agreed, and Graham said she would abide by the vote.

"Our goal is to put us back on the map. People say we're impoverished. I don't believe that," Seminary added.

Cox said everybody is struggling and could use a tax break.

"It's money that could be used for better things in my eyes at the moment," she said.

Nelson said the village board let a $112,000 downtown improvement grant expire.

"It needs to be done," he said of downtown improvements, "but nothing has ever been done."

Seminary contended that starting with Main Street is how business will be attracted to the community but it will be the voters' choice. He said a plan is in place but acknowledged the grant was allowed to expire because it wasn't enough to complete anything.

Nelson countered that the village should concentrate on getting vacant land on Route 120 and Alleghany Road developed and needed to mend its relationship with Hainesville to get sewers extended.

Graham and Cerretti are residents of Saddlebrook Farms, an age-restricted subdivision on the far southern part of town, which is connected to the village core by a thin strip of land.

Both profess not to be politicians but want to bring a new perspective to the board.

"I'm retired. I've got a lot of time to spend on a lot of research on whatever is going on," Cerretti said. "I'm coming in with an open mind."