Vestal residents will be headed to the polls in November to elect two Vestal Town Board members.
Democrat Suzanne Messina is seeking reelection. The other seat has been vacant since Stephen Donnelly resigned from his position in March.
In addition to Messina, the candidates vying for the seats are Republican Andrew A. Gowe, Democrat Matt Padbury and Republican William A. Stewart.
Election Day is Nov. 4. Polls will be open from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. Early voting will be held Oct. 25 through Nov. 2.
The candidates, who are listed in alphabetical order, were asked about their background and experience, the main issues they’d like to address and their overall mission for the Vestal Town Board.
Andrew A. Gowe, Republican
Andrew Gowe, a lifelong resident of Vestal, pointed to his 36 years working for the Town of Vestal, retiring as deputy highway superintendent.
“Through all those years, I have forged many relationships with department members, department heads, and the local community that reaches afar,” Gowe said. “So, that’s part of what I think is best.”
The main issues Gowe would address include ensuring the town is providing quality services at reasonable prices and minimizing the town’s spending on unnecessary things that “really aren’t what the town of Vestal stands for.”
“I would love to be able to continue all of our services the Town of Vestal currently provides because I think they are some of the best in the area,” Gowe said. “We have to keep looking for ways to continue that.”
Gowe’s mission is to bring town board members together and ensure all of them are working toward making Vestal a better place to live.
“The only way we’re going to succeed is everyone working together,” Gowe said. “I’m willing to work with anyone for the common goal, and I think I have the knowledge and experience to help people come to a better conclusion than we’re coming to right now.”
More information on Andrew Gowe can be found on his Facebook page Andy Gowe for Vestal Town Council.
Suzanne Messina, Democrat
Incumbent Sue Messina pointed to her experience as a sitting board member the last 12 years, her time serving on the county legislature and 43 years of being an educator.
“I’m able to communicate well with others,” Messina said. “I love people. I love working with people, and my total goal in town government is to move the town forward in a positive direction, and we do that by listening and by helping.”
Top issues for Messina include ensuring solar laws are developed with all Vestal residents in mind, researching battery storage facilities, government transparency, and the overall public safety of the town.
“It’s a continual, ongoing mission,” Messina said. “We work to get them all to work together.” Referencing a time when the fire department, police department, EMS and the DEC worked to find a missing person, she said, “they all worked very well together, and it’s my goal to continue that.”
Moving the town forward “in a positive direction,” is her overall mission for the board and she emphasized the importance of communicating with the public.
“When you’re listening to the public, you get great ideas that nobody would have ever thought of because you’re not right in that little space they’re in,” she said. “So, communication, communication, communication.”
To connect with Suzanne Messina, email her at smessina@stny.rr.com.
Matt Padbury, Democrat
Matt Padbury cited his background working for the government as his main qualification for the position, starting out with the Town of Union, then Broome County in 2006, and said he gained both blue-collar and white-collar work experience.
“I think that makes me uniquely qualified for this, because not only do I have the worker experience of working for the government, but I also have the management experience, and building budgets and maintaining budgets,” Padbury said.
Padbury said the main issues he would like to address are budget issues, maintaining reasonable tax levels, ensuring support of public employees, maintaining the status of residential environments and ensuring a drama-free town board.
“There’s been a lot of drama with one of the board members. He’s gone now, but I don’t want to see us go back to that,” Padbury said. “That’s really the main motivation for me getting involved.”
Padbury’s overall mission would be listening and interacting with the residents, he said, and also ensuring that he is acting as a representative of Vestal residents.
“That’s one of my primary goals is to take input from the residents and really try and enact what they want and what our overall vision is for the future of the Town of Vestal,” Padbury said.
More information on Matt Padbury can be found at mattpadbury.com.
William A. Stewart, Republican
William A. Stewart, owner of Funky Beez, said his business experience separates him from his fellow candidates and the current board members.
“At the end of the day, the Town of Vestal is a 30-plus million dollar business. So, I think having that experience is invaluable,” Stewart said. “We need somebody on the board that can represent small businesses because we don’t have that.”
The main issues Stewart would address are transparency and accessibility, providing bi-weekly videos of town happenings and projects for those who cannot attend board meetings.
“If they had somebody that was on the town board that could do a regular video and say ‘Hey, just so you know, this is what’s happening, these are the projects that are coming,” he said. “If something’s coming and you don’t want it, it’s good to know that it’s coming so you can voice your concern.”
Stewart said said his mission for the board also includes representation of all Vestal small businesses.
“My overall mission is to bring town awareness to everything that’s happening in the town and, again, we need some small business representation on the board,” he said. “I think those are the two things, for me, that are most important.”
More information on William Stewart can be found at Bill Stewart for Vestal Town Board on Facebook.
This article originally appeared on Binghamton Press & Sun-Bulletin: What to know about the four candidates in the 2025 Vestal Town Board election
Reporting by Sunshyne Lynch, Binghamton Press & Sun Bulletin / Binghamton Press & Sun-Bulletin
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