TUPPER LAKE — The two candidates running to represent the newly-expanded Franklin County District 6 — incumbent Paul Maroun and political newcomer Nedd Sparks — both say they want to help Tupper Lake from the county level, but they differ on what exactly Tupper Lake needs.

Maroun is running for a 16th term on the county board because he says he’s got decades of experience and connections in government that he wants to leverage to support several large local projects from the county level. Sparks is running to hold a public office for the first time because he says he feels the southern end of the county has been “forgotten” by the legislature and he wants to reopen multiple county offices that have closed in Tupper Lake. His main priority is getting social services and probation offices back in Tupper Lake.

Sparks believes he’s the candidate to fight for the south end of the county. Maroun said the fight is not that easy, or necessary.

Sparks won the Republican party nomination in June, beating out Maroun with 65% of the vote. He is also running on the independent “Integrity” party line.

Maroun is running on the Conservative party line.

District 6 has grown recently, because of redistricting, to include the town of Brighton along with Santa Clara and Tupper Lake.

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Southern services

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Sparks is the head of maintenance at Ivy Terrace, a public housing complex run by the Tupper Lake Housing Authority, where the Franklin Count government has offices for some of its agencies in the south end. But he said he’s seen these offices either close or sit vacant in recent years. When he’s working, he often sees people looking for the adult or children social services offices and finding them empty.

The south end of the county pays a significant portion of taxes, he pointed out, but its offices are often closed. He said Tupper Lakers pay county taxes but don’t see the results of their contributions.

“We just don’t seem to get a return on our money,” Sparks said. “I believe that the south end gets forgotten. The general consensus in the community is ‘we do not get county help.'”

Maroun disagrees with Sparks. He said Tupper Lakers get the same services as the rest of the county, even though there are fewer offices.

“I’m convinced that everybody in Tupper Lake gets the same service as people in Malone, Chateaugay, and the other 18 towns in the county,” Maroun said. “There’s nobody that can show me that they don’t get the same services as they get in the north.”

The county pays rent for the social services office it has in Ivy Terrace, Sparks said, but it sits empty most of the time. Occasionally, there’s a county employee there for an appointment, but never reliably, he said.

Not all Tupper Lakers’ requests can be granted over the phone, he said, and sometimes they need to find a ride for the hour-long drive to the county seat in Malone. That’s hard especially for the elderly, he said, who rely on social services but don’t have easy access to transportation.

Maroun said the county has had social service jobs in Tupper Lake before, but it couldn’t get people to staff its offices. The county has been losing social workers to state jobs, he said, because it can’t compete with the state’s pay and benefits.

Sparks said county employees in Malone get paid mileage and time to drive down here. He wants to find Tupper Lakers to take those jobs to cut down on unnecessary costs.

It may be difficult, he said. Hiring is hard right now, and being competitive with the state would require raising pay and benefits, which he was not convinced he’d want to do.

Maroun said even northern offices are struggling to find enough employees.

On Monday, Sparks learned that the county’s probation office in the Tupper Lake Town Hall will be closing and moving to Saranac Lake. He said this is just the latest in a string of county offices closing in Tupper Lake, and another problem for people living here.

“I’m sure some of these people on probation have no way of getting out of town, no transportation,” he said.

Tupper Lake town Clerk Laurie Fuller confirmed the local probation officer told her they would be leaving the Tupper Lake office next week to work in an office with the Saranac Lake officer for “safety” reasons. Fuller said it’s been convenient having a probation officer in the town hall.

Maroun said probation officers will still be in Tupper Lake often. He said he wants to find a central spot for the probation offices. Having multiple offices is wasteful, he said.

Sparks said he wants to convince the rest of the legislature the south end is not getting the same services and pledged transparency if he is elected. He said he would make public what goes on in meetings, especially if he gets outvoted trying to bring more services to the south. He said he would “fight for the south end.”

Sparks acknowledged this might lead to contentious relationships with other members of the board, but he said he will push for representation because he thinks it’s the right thing to do.

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Maroun

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Maroun’s two primary goals for Tupper Lake are finishing the Oval Wood Dish redevelopment and get Big Tupper Ski Area back up and running. In Santa Clara, he said he wants to find money for repairs to the Bartlett Carry Dam, and in Brighton he said he wants to promote Paul Smith’s College more through the county tourism office or IDA.

Maroun is also the Tupper Lake village mayor. He said he’s got a majority of fellow legislators and an anonymous wealthy group he’s been speaking to to potentially get the Big Tupper Ski Area in the county’s hands and allow a private company to reopen the ski mountain.

Maroun thinks, if he wins, this will be his last term in the county legislature. He’s 70 and has been in politics since he was 18. Maroun said when he thinks he’s not effective anymore, he won’t run again.

He has ran for the county legislative seat 15 times and has been in office a total of 35 years.

“Yeah, I’ve been in office a long time, but I don’t think experience hurts,” Maroun said.

In those decades, he said he has made deep connections with local, state and national legislators and gotten to know how government works.

With years of connections, he said he’s able to draw down resources from the state and federal levels.

Maroun said Franklin County is in the process of applying for a land bank, which would allow it to take rundown homes from owners who have fallen behind on their taxes and work with organizations like Habitat for Humanity or the Franklin County Economic Development Corporation to develop the land.

It wouldn’t be an immediate fix, but it would be a slow and steady way to build the housing stock.

Recently, a state auditor said the county’s finances are in an “outstanding” position with a large fund balance. Because of this, Maroun said the budget will carry no tax increase this year.

“We’re probably in the best position that we’ve been in in the last 20 years,” Maroun said, crediting county staff with working hard to build the fund balance.

He said while a healthy fund balance should be maintained to get better rates when the county borrows money, he also believes the county should be ready to dip into it for “special needs” — whether that is maintaining revenue without raising taxes in future years, putting money into housing or vaccine programs or helping out nursing homes, which he said are having a “tough time” meeting a high demand with low rates.

Maroun said he’s “positive” the county board will do something to reduce fuel oil taxes for the winter heating season this year.

Last year, the county board decided to cancel its tourism promotion contract with the Franklin County Economic Development Corporation and give that contract to a new in-house county office. Maroun voted to approve this change.

Maroun said that office’s director, Phil Hans, has been doing a “great job” and has brought thousands of dollars to Tupper Lake in grants. He said he had no objection to the EDC running tourism promotion, but thought the organization had “enough on its plate” and was busy with its other roles.

Both Sparks and Maroun have said they believe the Regional Office of Sustainable Tourism should handle tourism promotion in Tupper Lake.

Maroun said he wants to work with Hans to get bus or van transportation from the rail-trail depot, so people coming into town on the train or trail can get around to Tupper Lake venues.

Maroun said voters should choose him because he can potentially become the county board’s chair in this term.

“I’m pretty convinced that if I win reelection I’ll be chairman,” Maroun said.

He’s a senior member of the county legislature and said there are several other Republicans on the board who would vote for him. Most of the board’s decisions are not politically-motivated, he said, but in a split vote or a tough choice between two chair seekers, they typically defer to supporting their party.

Being the head of the board gives the chairperson more “clout” in Albany and throughout the state, he said.

Maroun said he doesn’t believe Sparks would get elected as the chair as a freshman member.

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Sparks

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Sparks created the independent “Integrity” line to run on. He said “integrity” means “Being a man of my word.”

“If I say I’m going to do something, I’m going to do it,” he said.

His primary goal is to get county offices back open in Tupper Lake and the southern end of the county.

Sparks said not having county social services offices in Tupper Lake means people here can’t easily access things like applications for the Home Energy Assistance Program in person. This impacts their ability to heat their homes.

Sparks said he wants to bring county buses into town for for train passengers getting off at the rail depot, which is expected to be used more next season, but that the town could also use more county transportation in general.

He’d also like to work on broadband. His own television struggles with streaming near the heart of the village downtown.

He wants to work on getting Tupper Lake a bigger share of the county’s bed tax revenues. Sparks also said landfill tipping fees seem higher in Franklin County than elsewhere, and he would want to lower them.

Sparks said it’s good the county has a large fund balance for a “rainy day,” but that day may come sooner rather than later. He pointed out that the county got state and federal funds during the coronavirus pandemic, which gave the fund balance a “bump,” but these financial gains will not last, he said.

He said it would be nice to use this fund balance to lower taxes, but he said tax stability is his goal.

Sparks asked, if the county is in good financial shape, why accessing services isn’t easier.

Sparks said he wants to make sure the community as a whole wants the county to act on acquiring Big Tupper. If so, he’ll go after it “aggressively.” But he said people are leery on this idea and opinions are split on if this would be a good move. Whatever happens, he said he wants it to be a community decision.

Sparks said he would want his county seat to be a “community seat,” and that he would be willing to meet with anyone who wants to give him input on the county’s decisions. He said he would attend town board meetings in Brighton and Santa Clara to learn what local leaders there want from the county, and bring their requests to the board.

Sparks pledged to hold public forums if he’s elected so he can gather information on what people want from the county government.

Sparks said he’d like the county board to hold meetings in Tupper Lake several times a year to increase representation of his town.

He told voters to choose him to represent them fairly in the county.

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Voting information

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Election Day is Nov. 8. Polls on that day will be open from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m.

Early voting at the Franklin County Courthouse has started. The one polling location for early voting is at 355 West Main St., Suite 161, Malone, and lasts until Nov. 6. This voting site is open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. On Nov. 1 and 3, the offices will be open from 12 to 8 p.m.

The last day to deliver an absentee ballot application in person at the county offices in Malone is Nov. 7.

Absentee ballots for the Nov. 8 election must reach the county board of election by close of the polls on Election Day or be postmarked no later than the day of the election and received by Nov. 15.