Democratic Town Councilman Mike Aragosa will be running for town supervisor this fall, taking on six-term incumbent Republican Supervisor Chris Koetzle, who is expected to seek re-election.
Aragosa, 57, who was elected to the Town Board in 2017, was endorsed last week by the Scotia-Glenville Democratic Committee. He is currently owner of MMAragosa Home Services, but from 1998 until last summer was co-owner and vice-president of Marty’s True Value Hardware in Schenectady. For six years, he was president of the Northside Business Association.
“As supervisor, I will use the leadership skills I developed over 22 years running a small business to help grow our existing businesses and ensure that Glenville is a place where people want to come to do business,” Aragosa said in announcing his candidacy Tuesday.
The Aragosa family sold the family-owned hardware store last year, and since then Aragosa said he has been volunteering for local community food drives and a food insecurity task force helping sort, organize and deliver food to Schenectady County residents in need during the COVID-19 pandemic. He also volunteers mentoring vocational skills in the Schenectady and Mohonasen school districts.
Koetzle, 51, said Tuesday he anticipates seeking re-election, but won’t make an official announcement until after the Schenectady County Republicans hold an endorsement meeting this Saturday. He has been supervisor since 2010, and would be seeking his fourth four-year term. He was unopposed the last time he ran for re-election, in 2017.
“I think we have a strong record. I think residents are happy with the way things are going in Glenville,” Koetzle said.
Aragosa acknowledged it will be an uphill battle to unseat Koetzle, who is also the Schenectady County Republican chairman, and is often in the public eye.
“Somebody has to run against him. You can’t let a guy run unopposed all the time,” Aragosa said.
Aragosa said he believes the town should be doing more to encourage development of solar power. “Solar is the wave of the future,” he said. “As a town, we should be doing everything in our power to promote this safe and effective technology that will reduce our carbon footprint and leave our children breathing cleaner air.”
Glenville supervisor is a full-time position, with a current salary of $86,749.
Aragosa was elected to the Town Board four years ago along with fellow Democrat Mike Godlewski — and both were the first Democrats to be elected to the Town Board in Glenville in more than a decade.
Aragosa, who grew up in Schenectady, has lived in Glenville for 29 years. He has been married for nearly 30 years, and he and his wife have three children between ages 28 and 20. “I’ve been involved in the community a long time,” he said.
The Democratic Committee also endorsed Godlewski for re-election to another four-year Town Board term. It nominated Jenny Lippman, a civil engineer with MJ Engineering and Land Surveying, to run for the Town Board seat now held by Aragosa.
Godlewski is the first deputy county attorney for Schenectady County, overseeing the office’s child protective and adult protective legal units. A native of Rotterdam, Godlewski is a graduate of Skidmore College and New England School of Law.
He and Aragosa both voted against the town budgets proposed by Koetzle for 2019 and 2020, saying they raised taxes too much.
Lippman has worked as a project engineer on municipal projects across the region, and is currently a member of the town Planning and Zoning Commission. She has previously chaired the village of Scotia Planning Board and served on the town of Glenville comprehensive plan committee. A mother of two, she is a 2003 graduate of Union College in Schenectady.
Koetzle said the Republican party has candidates lined up to run for the two Town Board seats, but said their names won’t be announced until next week.
Categories: -News-, Schenectady County
