Buttermilk Falls
In the Town of Long Lake, NY

September 8, 2009

Dear Long Lake/Raquette Lake Voter:

I am a candidate for Town Supervisor in the September 15th primary election and would appreciate your consideration and support. As a candidate, I’ve attempted to personally visit as many of you as possible to share my thoughts and listen to your ideas and concerns. Unfortunately, time constraints have prohibited me from visiting everyone and for that I apologize. However, I’d like to take this opportunity to share with you my background, and my concerns and vision for our community.

I am a 3rd generation Long Laker and have lived here all my life with the exception of the six years while I served in the US Air Force. A few years after returning to Long Lake I attended SUNY Potsdam and graduated with a BA. I am a past Assessor having served two consecutive four year terms. I’m also a past member and captain of the Long Lake Rescue Squad. Last April I retired from Sunmount DDSO as a Treatment Team Leader.

I am a fiscal conservative and believe that government should operate within a reasonable budget just like you and I must do. I believe elected officials have an obligation to be fiscally responsible, and accountable to their constituents. I do not support the proposal for affordable housing in our community at this time. Our community needs business growth and expansion which hopefully will lead to employment opportunities before we pursue affordable housing. If elected, I will be a full time, hands on supervisor and I will implement a monthly report to the residents of Long Lake and Raquette Lake as was done by past supervisors.

Our community is slowly declining and I believe it is time to take active steps to entice growth and development. I realize that due to the current economic climate and other factors beyond our control any business growth or expansion may be difficult if not impossible to achieve, however, there are some steps we should take now. Over the past several years I have been providing web site design, hosting, search engine optimization and other professional internet services to businesses in the area, primarily in Lake Placid. We need to be promoting tourism for all seasons in Long Lake and Raquette Lake like our neighbors are doing. With a solid, aggressive online presence (new town web site) and other creative marketing, some of which we can do in house, we may be able to get a "bigger slice of the tourist pie". Additionally, we need to explore all options to entice new business growth in our community, for example, internet based businesses that can be done from home. As I have been campaigning and listening to many of you, I’ve heard several good ideas that should be explored. If elected, I’ll form a committee(s) of board members and other interested individuals to explore these ideas, identify goals and develop a plan(s) to attempt to achieve those goals.

Another concern that many citizens have voiced to me over the past weeks is the need for senior programs and housing in our community. If elected, I will work with the board, our seniors and other interested citizens to create senior housing and address other issues our seniors are facing. I believe we can accomplish this with little to no increase in taxes if we sell the Lake Eaton property as soon as possible and devote that money to senior programs. This will take time, but the time to start planning is now.

Finally, as many of you know Councilman Craig Seaman is my brother. We have both made inquires to relevant state agencies and/or legal advisors and there is no conflict of interest if we serve on the board together. Furthermore, I assure you we don’t always agree on every issue and would each vote accordingly.

As I said above I would appreciate your consideration and support. However, regardless of how you intend to vote, please exercise your right to vote in both the primary and general elections.

Thank you.

Clark J. Seaman