On Nov. 3, Rochester residents will vote on three open positions: town board member, town supervisor and highway superintendent. Two candidates are running for each position; this week we take a look at the highway superintendent race, where Jeff Frey, the current highway superintendent, is not seeking reelection.

Charlotte Smiseth, 32, is a lifelong Rochester resident who has served on the town board since 2021. Endorsed by the Democratic Party, she is running on the Democratic and Working Families party lines but says she has no party affiliation and “never will.” She recently graduated from SUNY Ulster with an associate’s degree, a general management certificate and four micro-credentials in accounting, business management, business law and communications.

After five years on the town board and overseeing the highway department’s budget, Smiseth said unanswered questions and longstanding road and bridge maintenance issues motivated her to run for highway superintendent.

She pointed to the lack of “a proper maintenance schedule or bridge schedule” and several recent bridge closures that caused “huge unrest” and traffic problems. She also said the town board has had to loan the highway department money from the general fund each year to ensure it had adequate supplies, prompting questions about how the department manages its finances.

“Our budget has more than doubled in the past eight years for the highway despite us not having a ton of new trucks or major bridge work done,” Smiseth said. “The budget is the number-one priority, and then actual maintenance, getting an actual road schedule down.”

Smiseth believes a standardized maintenance schedule for trucks and other fleet vehicles, along with a restructured procurement and purchasing process, could help control costs. Buying parts in bulk and securing discounts, she said, could produce savings.

She also wants to improve communication between the highway department and residents, ensuring people receive advance notice of road closures while giving them opportunities to identify areas needing attention.

Although she is running on the Democratic and Working Families lines, Smiseth said her independence from party politics is central to her approach to local government.

“I’m loyal to the people who put me in office, I’m not loyal to any party or their ideals,” Smiseth said. “I’m there for residents as a town board member when I’m doing policy or anything else, but as highway superintendent, I’m in charge of their safety.”

If elected highway superintendent, Smiseth would have to resign from the town board. The remaining board members would then decide whether and how to fill the vacancy.

Smiseth said it is “really exciting” that the highway department will have new leadership regardless of the election’s outcome. She also plans to attend the Cornell Bridge Conference and Snow Removal Conference in Syracuse this fall to learn more about the position.

“I’m excited to be able to take on a new role where I’m more of an independent and not one of five, because at times I am the only one with a certain take on different items,” Smiseth said. “Being able to have an impact and hopefully help balance that budget and get it lowered and get us more funding, and other road programming, that really excites me.”

Richard Smith Jr., 33, is a lifelong Rochester resident and first-time candidate running on the Republican and Conservative party lines. He owns R. Smith Site Development. When Smith learned that current Highway Superintendent Jeff Frey would not seek reelection, he decided the time was right to pursue a position he had always planned to run for.

Smith said Rochester has experienced the largest population growth he has seen in his lifetime, resulting in more-traveled roads, increased construction and a greater need for upkeep. While he acknowledged that these issues cannot be resolved overnight, he said his top priority is the highway department’s budget, which he believes is the starting point for making improvements.

“[The budget] could be managed a little better on the equipment end of things, or the necessities of things that need to be fixed between drainage in our town, and we have a lot of dead trees, one bridge that’s been closed for a couple of years,” Smith said. “With more houses comes more construction, and more heavy equipment on the roads, and I feel that they need to be travelable not just by your average car, but also equipment.”

Smith brings six years of business experience to the position, along with earlier experience working for his father’s company in logging, land clearing and excavation.

“I’m around the heavy equipment, the trucks, the machinery, all that stuff for my entire life,” Smith said. “I’ve done digging for houses and roads and driveways, drainable. All my skills that I use on an everyday basis relates to the highway, and I’ve been managing my own budget for years now.”

As a lifelong resident whose family has lived in Rochester for generations, Smith said he has had a “head start” in getting his name out to voters. He also expressed appreciation for the support he has received from local residents. His focus now is encouraging those supporters to vote.

“I’ve grown up right in town and I would like to do nothing more than give back to the community that I’m in and from,” Smith said. “I hope I can get the support and try to make a difference for not just me and my kids, but everyone in this town and everyone coming to this town.”

Election Day is Tuesday, November 3, with early voting scheduled to run Saturday, October 24 through Sunday, November 1. Polling locations in the Town of Rochester are listed on the Ulster County Board of Elections website as follows: District 1 & 5 - Accord Fire Hall at 22 Main St, Accord; District 2 - First Municipal Bldg at 140 Samsonville Rd, Kerhonkson; District 3 - Rochester 2 Firehouse at 922 Samsonville Rd, Kerhonkson; and District 4 - Rondout Central School Admin Bldg at 122 Kyserike Rd, Accord. For more election information, visit https://elections.ulstercountyny.gov/.