Eric Shaheen, Rick Pickering win GOP nods for two village trustee posts
Dan McClelland
by Dan McClelland
Trustee Eric Shaheen and political newcomer Rick Pickering will represent the village Republic Party on the November ballot when village voters will be asked to chose two trustee candidates to serve for two-year terms.
There are no elections for town board this fall, so hence no town caucus was paired with Wednesday’s village one.
The caucus chairwoman, Mayor Mary Fontana, called the village caucus to session at 6:07 p.m. Wednesday evening in the cleared-out truck bays of the Tupper Lake Emergency Services Building.
Among the guests that evening were residents of both the village and town and Mayor Fontana asked town residents to move to the back of the room, telling them “they could neither participate or vote” in that evening’s political meeting. “You may just observe,” she told the town residents.
Everyone in the room stood for the Pledge of Allegiance.
Handling the sign-up of village GOP party members as caucus tellers were former Town Councilwoman Tracy Luton and former school board member, Bill King.
Town Councilwoman Crystal Boucher served as caucus secretary that evening.
The caucus chairwoman joined the other officials in reciting the constitution oath.
The first candidate nominated was Trustee Eric Shaheen to run for his second two-year term as village trustee. Trustee Shaheen was also appointed last fall by the mayor to serve as her deputy.
Eric was nominated by his sisters Margaret and Rose.
Seconds later Eric Shaheen nominated Rick Pickering, a former member of the Tupper Lake Golf Course Board, to run for trustee with him. Shane St. Louis seconded that nomination.
The third nomination came next from Trustee Leon LeBlanc, who nominated Barbara Denis. Trustee David “Haji” Maroun seconded the nomination of Ms. Denis, who is a banking software specialist and who has been a regular guest at village board meetings in recent months. She and her partner, retired Police Officer and Businessman Mike Vaillancourt, were instrumental as community activists in setting up a well-attended meeting earlier this year to address concerns about Mercy Living Center, the care of its residents and the new ownership team. They continue to monitor conditions there.
Trustees Maroun and LeBlanc both started their trustee terms last December at the village organizational meeting and neither was opposed in the fall 2023 election.
Because there were three candidates for two positions the caucus was moved into the election mode using a secret ballot.
Ms. Fontana explained every village registered Republican in attendance that evening could place the names of “up to two” of the three running on their ballot.
The two candidates who garner the highest number of votes would be the party’s choice in the village race this fall, she noted.
The mayor announced that there were 36 registered Republicans who live in the village who were in attendance that evening.
She explained that the 36 party faithful could “place one name on their ballot or two names.”
After about five minutes of gathering the votes and counting them the two tellers presented the results to the mayor to announce the winners.
“The results are as follows,” the mayor stated. “Twenty-two votes for Rick Pickering. Twenty-six votes for Eric Shaheen and 13 votes for Barbara Denis.”
She said Mr. Shaheen and Mr. Pickering were the party’s choice to run for village trustee this fall. A motion to conclude the caucus came seconds later.
The Town Democratic party is expected to hold a caucus on Thursday, July 25 at 2p.m. at the Aaron Maddox Hall, according to comments at Monday night’s village board meeting by Daniel “Boonie” Carmichael, who will be serving as caucus chair.
At Monday’s village board meeting a letter was read by Trustee David “Haji” Maroun from Barbara Denis, who was out of town on business, that challenged Eric Shaheen’s candidacy, based on his claim of residency within the village. More on that next week.
