Dennis Dickinson, a civil engineer who served as Lake George Town Supervisor from 1980 to 1982, defeated incumbent Supervisor Frank McCoy.
With 197 absentee ballots yet to be counted, Dickinson leads McCoy by 129 votes. Dickinson is expected to receive at least half those votes.
McCoy, who was endorsed by the Glens Falls Post-Star, said he was “flabbergasted” by his loss.
“I spent every waking moment of the last few weeks on this campaign,” he said. “I was able get my record of accomplishments out there, to highlight the differences between Dennis and me,” said McCoy.
Among those differences, McCoy said, was whether to use Occupancy Tax funds to help combat Asian clams.
Dickinson, who defeated McCoy in the Republican primary, said his positions had been mischaracterized.
“I am an environmentalist; that’s my number one concern ,” said Dickinson.
Dickinson said he understood the importance of combatting invasive species, but hoped “to attack the problem on the front end: before the boats carrying invasives are launched on the lake.”
Dickinson said he would support user fees to raise funds for invasive species control.
“There are 5,500 boats trailered from other water bodies to Lake George every year,” said Dickinson. “They should contribute to the costs of the effort. You pay to play.”
Dickinson said he had also been accused of being pro-development.
“I want to make it more difficult and expensive to develop, not less,” he said. “I want to re-do our zoning, so that zoning conforms to what the land can accommodate.”
While supporting incentives that would encourage the owners of motels to update their properties, he did not favor loosening restrictions on environmental protections, he said.
“I want to allow people to re-develop in ways that will permit the re-development of commercial properties in return for concessions that will benefit the environment,” he said. “That would also benefit the economy, bringing in more visitors, and the more visitors we have, the high our higher occupancy and sales tax revenues.”
Dickinson was supported by the Lake George Citizens’ Group, whose candidates for two seats on the Town Board defeated the endorsed Republican candidates.
Democrat Dan Hurley led by 583 votes, followed by Citizens Group candidate Marisa Muratori with 568 votes. If the two maintain their leads, they will replace Republican incumbents Scott Wood and Caryl Clark, who garned 468 and 465 votes, respectively.