Incumbent Town Supervisor William S. Wadsworth won his bid for reelection on Nov. 3. Adjunct lecturer in English and languages and literatures Wes Kennison ’79 ran a write-in campaign in opposition. Wadsworth received 69.12 percent of the vote while Kennison received 29.73 percent. The remaining votes were other write-in candidates. “I know when you have a challenger, even though it’s a last minute thing, sometimes people’s passions can get riled up and rallied and you just never know what to expect—which is why, through the election cycle, we went out and went door-to-door and tried to meet as many people as we could,” Wadsworth said. “As an incumbent, I think there’s a tendency for people to think, ‘I’m doing a great job—there’s no reason to go ask again.’ I’ve seen people lose the job for that kind of avarice.”
Wadsworth emphasized that he was happy about voter turnout, especially from students. “We love it when people register to vote because they start to think about that; they might never really spend much time thinking about politics and when you get a sudden understanding of your power as a voter—that you can actually help make a decision that will lead into a direction—is pretty exciting,” he said. “We’re very enthusiastic about people going out and voting.”
One issue that Kennison stressed during his campaign was the abolition of the Interfaith Center as a polling place for students. According to Wadsworth, this is something that could be addressed during his new term.
“I know quite a few voters from the campus—I think on the south side—had to vote down at the Methodist Church,” he said. “It wasn’t a new thing, but we’re certainly listening and if there’s a big outcry for a place to vote elsewhere, we’d look into that and the Board of Elections is not opposed to that either.”
As for his plans moving forward, Wadsworth emphasized that the first thing on the agenda was the town budget. “We’re wrapping up the budget process now,” he said. “Just making sure we’re budgeting, we are paying down the bills we need to and are ready for next year.”
Long Point Park is another major piece of Wadsworth’s plan for the next four years. Long Point Park—which rests on Conesus Lake—is the current site of Geneseo Crew’s boathouse and is approximately six miles from the Geneseo campus. According to Wadsworth, the town acquired the park about 30 years ago and could be remodeling it in the near future.
“Sometime last year, middle of summer, a local resident went on a vacation to Syracuse and saw a little amusement park that was going to be sold that had rides identical to rides that had been at Long Point Park years ago when it was a privately owned amusement park,” Wadsworth said. “I think most of us that remember the park as an amusement park were like, ‘Oh my God, that would be so great. That would really be something.’”
Wadsworth continued to say that the park remained in its current state because New York State enforced “a 20-year period where we couldn’t do anything but have the park like it is.” Wadsworth also noted that a planning committee has asked surrounding towns how they would like to see the park used.
“We made sure that committee was made up of a broad spectrum of citizens both from [Conesus] Lake and from the Town and some from the Village so that all [of the] voting blocks that we could get in there were represented,” he said. “Whether the community wants to go for an amusement park or the community wants to keep it exactly like it is, we don’t know at this point. But once we have those recommendations [from the committee], the Town Board needs to start looking at implementing the things that people say they want.”
Wadsworth also emphasized that he believes new college President Denise Battles will help improve relations between the town and the school.
“I think with Denise Battles coming in, I think she’s a very community-oriented person,” he said. “We’re very enthusiastic about her and about her husband; both very involved in the community already.”