By a comfortable margin, incumbents in the Brockport Village Board election were returned to their positions in voting June 20.
In unofficial results from the Monroe County Board of Elections, Mayor Margaret Blackman received 374 votes; Lyle Stirk received 260 votes and Carol Hannan 84 votes.
Katherine Kristansen and Annie Crane were re-elected as trustees. Kristansen received 392 votes; Crane 393 votes. Blue Collar Brockport candidates Kevin McCarthy received 222 votes and Kris Bonczyk received 302 votes.
Blackman, Kristansen and Crane ran on the Revitalize Brockport Party line.
“I didn’t think the margin would be that big,” Mayor Blackman said of the vote totals. She said village elections in Brockport are “always competitive … people are passionate about the village.”
Trustees Kristansen and Crane said they were happy to be returned to the board. “Now we can move forward and get back to work,” Trustee Kristansen said.
Lyle Stirk ran for mayor on the Brockport United Party line. He said he was disappointed with the results. “I ran to try to bring unity to the village,” he said. “We can pretend we have unity … but it’s not true … I’ve spoken to members of both boards (village and Town of Sweden) and they say they don’t feel unity.”
Stirk said he hopes to continue to serve the village as a Planning Board member; his term expires at the end of June. He said problems facing the village are not going to go away. “I will fight for this village to the last day,” Stirk said.
Blue Collar Brockport trustee candidates Kris Bonczyk and Kevin McCarthy were also disappointed with the election results. “Our only hope is that by us running, it showed that people are not happy. As we were canvassing neighborhoods, we heard that loud and clear. We are not going to take our foot off the gas pedal,” McCarthy said.
Members of the Monroe County Young Republicans became involved in the candidacy of Lyle Stirk. Chair Jack Merritt says he feels the election results show that we are seeing a trend.
“We keep voting for the same people and putting the same people back into the same positions,” he observed. He said people are looking for a difference in local government and there has been no difference.
“I hope they learn from this, there has to be a change,” Merritt said.
In the Village of Holley, Jim DeFilipps was the top vote getter in the Village Board election for two trustees with 122 votes. He was appointed to the position a year ago when then Trustee Brian Sorochty was elected mayor. DeFilipps is an Orleans County Deputy Sheriff and received the New York State Sheriffs Association Deputy of the Year Award in 2016.
Newcomer Rochelle Moroz was also elected trustee with 72 votes. Moroz is a Vietnam era U.S. Air Force veteran. She moved to Holley four years ago with her husband to be closer to family and said she is looking forward to continuing the work that the current board has begun.
Kurt Wannenwetsch received 52 votes. A native of the Holley area, Wannenwetsch said he ran because he is concerned about the decline of the village and would truly like to see Holley become a better community.
