OTSELIC – Town of Otselic voters will decide next week on a total of four positions up for grabs, including one each for town supervisor and town justice, as well as a pair of council seats.
In the town supervisor race, Evan T. Williams, a Republican and relative newcomer to the political arena, will face off against incumbent Democrat David J. Messineo. Messineo, 67, is seeking a fifth term as supervisor.
Said Williams, the 55-year-old retired conservationalist, “The town’s in pretty good shape ... I just wanted to give people a choice. That’s what they need.”
A former five-year member of the Otselic Valley Central School District Board of Education, the now-retired Williams spent nearly three decades with the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation at the Pharsalia and Georgetown minimum security prisons.
Messineo did not return phone calls to comment for this or a previous article featuring Chenango County’s numerous candidates for supervisor.
In the race for town justice, former Smyrna Town Justice Charles E. Seward has thrown his hat in to politics again, having held the position between 1998 and 2004. The 61-year-old is a retired New York State corrections officer and deputy sheriff. He currently teaches criminal justice at the Norwich Campus of Morrisville State College. A Republican, Seward is also a member of the Smyrna Fire Department, where he was treasurer for a time.
Seward faces Democratic candidate Kelly Moyer. Moyer could not be reached for comment.
