KINGSTON >> Democrats Richard Parete and Douglas Adams will square off in a Sept. 10 primary for the Democratic line on the November ballot in Ulster County Legislature District 18.
Adams, a Marbletown Town Board member, was tapped by the county Democratic Committee over Parete, a 14-year incumbent legislator.
But Parete, 47, was able to garner the support of enough registered Democrats to force a primary.
Parete also filed petitions to appear on the Republican, Independence and Working Families lines, though he was not endorsed by those parties, meaning that regardless of the outcome of the Democratic primary, Parete is guaranteed a spot on the ballot.
Adams must win the Democratic primary to have a line on the November ballot.
District 18 comprises the town of Hurley and part of Marbletown.
Richard Parete
A lifelong county resident who lives at 289 Cherry Hill Road in Marbletown, Parete is a 1986 graduate of Rondout Valley High School and holds a marketing degree from Syracuse University.
He is a member of the Catskill Watershed Corp. board of directors, the Marbletown Sportsmen’s Club and is a Rondout Valley High School and youth wrestling coach.
Parete opposes the county’s flow-control law, which requires all municipal and private haulers to dispose of trash collected in Ulster County at the Ulster County Resource Recovery Agency facility and allows the agency to unilaterally establish the fees it charges those haulers.
“We need to repeal flow control or partner with the towns to help their transfer stations stay open,” Parete stated in response to a Freeman question about the issues facing Ulster County.
Parete also said the Legislature must be free to select, without interference from the executive branch, an independent auditor to look at the county’s books.
A field technician with Verizon, Parete and his wife Colleen have one child.
Doug Adams
Adams, 59, is a 21-year resident of the county.
A graduate of West High School in Torrence, California, Adams holds a bachelor’s degree in political science from the University of California at Santa Barbara, a master’s degree from the University of Washington and a master’s of business administration from Syracuse University.
He has been a Marbletown Town Board member since 2009 and serves as the treasurer of the Marbletown Democratic Committee. He served on the Marbletown Tax Reform Task Force from 2004-06 and was a member of the Marbletown Private Investment Crop from 2005-07.
Like Parete, Adams questions whether the county’s flow-control law is good public policy, stating in response to a Freeman question about the issues facing the county that “the monopoly hold of the Resource Recovery Agency over municipal sold waste now threatens the very existence of the county’s 19 transfer stations.”
He also supports a “more progressive tax structure at the local level” and said the lack of access to water, sewer, Internet and cell phone infrastructure impedes private-sector job creation necessary to grow the middle class.
The owner of a small investment advisory practice in Stone Ridge, Adams and his wife, Charlotte Sibley, live at 220 Cherry Hill Road in Marbletown.
