French's daughter is an artist who lives in Philadelphia. One stepdaughter graduated from Oneonta State last year and is now working in Oneonta. His other stepdaughter graduated from New Paltz and got her master's from Fredonia.

French has worked at Lansing's Highway Department since he graduated from SUNY Morrisville 30 years ago. He worked under Highway Superintendent Lloyd Sharpstein, Harold Groat, and finally Pete Larson. When Larson retired French ran for and won the position. We met in the Highway Department lunch room to talk about his candidacy for a third term.

Lansing Star: Why are you the best candidate and what unique benefits do you bring to the job?

Jack French: I've worked here for 30 years.  I am old school, but I also like to look to the future.  I'm not so old school that I don't want to try new things.  There is always something new, I don't know everything.  I like to talk to other highway superintendents and get an idea on how things are done in their towns.  Maybe they have ideas on how things can be done better here.

I've got 30 years experience here.  I graduated from Morrisville and started here right after that in 1977.

LS: Here in the Highway Department?

JF: Yes, I started here at the Highway Department.

LS: You worked your way up until you ran?

JF: When Pete retired I ran for it unopposed.

LS: Were you doing what Cricket's (Deputy Highway Superintendent Charlie Purcell) doing now before that?

JF: Yes, I was the next in charge when Pete was gone, and that kind of thing.  There wasn't a real deputy per se at that time, but I would be in charge when he left, basically because I had more experience than anybody here at the time.

LS: What made you want to take that seat and get into politics?

JF: The politics part of it I don't really care for.  The political part of it -- I'm not a big politician but I felt I had things to offer to the highway department.  I'd always thought about it.  For years I had thought about running and the opportunity was there.  I decided to go for it.

I guess one of the biggest reasons is I had some ideas that I wanted to throw out there of my own, and I enjoy talking to people.  I enjoy getting out in the public and meeting new people and talking to the life-long people who have been here.  I just enjoy the job, I enjoy it immensely.

LS: What were some of your ideas?

JF: One of them was a salt storage building that we have up back now.  It will hold all of our salt and sand for the winter.  It was an environmental thing for one thing.  I mean DEC hasn't mandated that we put it all under cover yet, but they are strongly suggesting that all our salt and sand gets under cover.  So we decided if we could find the money we would go ahead and build one.

LS: Basically because the salt melts?

JF: Actually they are more worried about the sand, because in a heavy rain it will run down into the ditches and the silt will run into the lake.  That's the main concern with the lake right now.  It's all the silt and sediment getting into the lake.

And the salt, to a smaller extent, they are concerned about it getting into people's wells and things like that but we don't have that problem around here because we have the water system.

Another thing is the solar panels we have on the (Highway Department) roof.  Bud Shaddock and I had gone to a seminar down at the Association of Towns in New York City a few years back and got the idea.  We talked about it and got the ball rolling.  Darby (Town Environmental Planner Darby Kiley) found a grant for it and got solar panels up and running.

LS: Every time I hear how long it's going to take to pay off, the numbers get smaller and smaller.

JF: Yes.  Actually when we first started talking about it they were talking about it paying for itself in 15 years, but now they're saying with the rising price of electricity it could be as little as 7 to 8 years.

LS: That's not necessarily good news that it's paying off sooner, because it means the prices are higher.  But it will pay itself off.

JF: Definitely, and there's no maintenance.  We check on it and make sure everything is tight on it every once in a while, but other than that it has held up under some pretty good windstorms.

LS: What do you think needs to be done in your next term?

JF: I think we still have some improvement to do on our roads, maintenance on the roads and things like that. 

LS: You mean beyond the normal rollover schedule?

JF: Right.  If you drive around the county, in my own opinion, we have far and away the best roads in the county including county roads.  The Town Board realizes that the money has to be there for us to maintain the quality of the roads that we have.  I think they do a very good job of budgeting us the money that the taxpayers actually supply.  They do a very good job of letting us pave as much as they can possibly let us.

They know that the highway department, as far as I'm concerned, and I think as far as most of them are concerned, is their number one priority as far as tax money.  If you don't have good roads, and you don't have roads that are plowed, kids can't get to school, people can't get to work -- that type of thing.  They realize this, so it's a number one priority to have a good infrastructure in the town.

LS: I hadn't thought of it that way until you just said it.  It's true, it's the biggest resource -- half the Town employees work here, and you probably have the most equipment.

JF: But as far as money and big equipment we definitely have the most of it -- more than any place in the town.  It's satisfying, and the guys will tell you that.  They get a lot of satisfaction knowing that they are -- I want to call it -- an elite highway department.  We do far and above what most highway departments do for the town.

LS: You also hire out.  You do the roads in the village.

JF: We help out the village some, we exchange some work with the county sometimes, and we've actually have gotten into exchanges of work with the Town of Ithaca.  A little bit of municipal cooperation works well for both sides.  They help us, we help them.

We have a good paving crew here.  People are trying to get us to help them more just because of the work that we do.  The guys take a lot of pride in the roads here.

LS: I have a vested interest in this conversation at the moment because you just re-did my road, and it's beautiful.

JF: And it should last a long time.  It should be that way for quite awhile.

LS: Do you think your position should be an elected position, or an appointed or hired position?

JF: It has it's pros and cons.  I'm okay with it being an elected position because you answer to the taxpayers of the town (either way).  I'm glad it's a four-year position because you don't have to worry about this election every two years.  You can look two or three years ahead without any problems whatsoever.  If it's a two-year position, it's a little more difficult -- but not bad.

I just feel that if you do your job and you treat people the right way then you really don't have to worry a lot about being re-elected.  As long as the job gets done and you treat people the right way and answer their questions.  You're not always going to make everybody happy -- that's a given -- but you try to make as many people as happy as you can and take it from there.

LS: One of the things that the department does is repair broken water lines.  That must be a municipal agreement of some kind?

JF: With the Village it is.  With the Village we contract out to the village to repair their water lines.  We charge them a rate depending upon how many guys we have.  We charge them an hourly rate for their wages and equipment that we use.

But here in the Town we do it all.  The water lines are actually part of the town's infrastructure.

LS: So it's not a Bolton Point responsibility?

JF: No, Bolton Point owns the water, the town owns the water line.

LS: I get it.  I've heard you speak about broken water lines, especially in certain neighborhoods, quite a bit at town board meetings.  So is that part of the infrastructure a serious concern or is it expected maintenance?

JF: Well it's going to be a concern down the road, because the water line is definitely getting older and older.  As a matter of fact I have a meeting right after this one with the State DOT down at Eastshore Drive, because we're going to be replacing about 1,200 feet of water line there.  We just need their permission to work within their right of way.

LS: Oh that's right - you'll face the same regulations as the sewer would have faced if it had gone down 34.

JF: Right.  It's just 1,200 feet and we're going to take the old water line out and replace it mainly because we've had so many water line breaks in the past five years.  We've determined that the soil there is pretty corrosive, so we have to replace it.

But it's not going to be a major, major concern because there's money for the water system that we know we can use for something like this.  We do have another water line problem on Triphammer Road sometime in the near future, next year or the year after.  It's about the same thing, corrosive ground material.

LS: That's probably pretty serious because of the development on that road.

JF: Right, so we're definitely going to have to upgrade some sections of that water line, but it's nothing we can't handle.  And like I said,  the guys take pride in something new and they do a good job.   I think some of the guys here are looking forward to doing it just to show people they can do it.

LS: Do you think as Highway Superintendent that you have enough, not enough, or the right amount of influence on town planning decisions?  For example, I noticed you weren't on the sewer committee.  In a way that's surprising they wouldn't ask you to be on that committee.

JF: I think it was probably because the early part of the sewer committee was just talking about where it's going to go and things like that.  I really wouldn't get involved in that anyway, and I would imagine that I have enough meetings to go to nights and, so they didn't want to get me involved until they really decided that the sewer is going to go in.  Then I would become more involved in it, because we would have to come up with a sewer district and some of my guys would have to be part of a water and sewer department.  We would have to send them for training so I would get more involved in it as that went on.  If and when that ever happens.

LS: In some ways it is happening now with water.  We have this consolidated district and extensions keep consolidating into it and it's getting pretty big.  Do you have input into that.  It sounds like what I'm hearing at town board meetings is that you and Dave Herrick work together behind the scenes.

JF: We do.  We don't have any input as far as if people want a water district in their neighborhood, or at least I don't have an input, Dave has an input on that.  But I don't really have an input if there is a water district (to be created).  Once it's decided that there's going to be a water district, that is when I step in and say what side of the road the water line should be put on, and what part of the road should be torn up and what part shouldn't -- that kind of thing.

That's when I determine whether to pave that road this year or wait two or three years down the road to wait for the water line to get in before it's all torn up.

 

LS: From a practical standpoint has there been any significant change in your job since the employee's became a Teamsters voting unit?

JF: No, actually it's been a smooth transition and I don't expect there will be.

LS: I gather both you and they had to learn what ever the procedures were.

JF: Yes.  Actually the teamsters representatives were right up front: they said they were not here to run a highway department, they had no idea how to run a highway department, they don't want to run a highway department.

It's a pretty good partnership I think.  It's a win-win situation.  It's definitely a win for the Teamsters, for the guys here, and for myself because I'm allowed to get on the health insurance.  I'm not a member of the Teamsters, but I can get on the health insurance so it's definitely a win all the way around.

And it's a good deal for the people down at the Town Hall.  All the employees there are allowed to get on to the health insurance.  So, yeah, I think it's a good thing.

LS: If there is anything you would want to change in the department over the next four years what would it be?

JF: I think probably we would like to expand the office space, the lunchroom area.  Other than we just maintain the roads that we have.  We've talked a little bit with the Board about getting a bigger office.  We're pretty cramped with the three of us in the office.  That office was built in 1968, so it's been a few years.  Some day down the road if money permits we would like to make this larger, a little more convenient.

Once we get in the wintertime especially when we get wingmen (who handle the plow blades while the drivers navigate the snowy roads)  in here it gets pretty crowded to eat lunch.

LS: I guess at your peak you have how many?

JF: At our peak in the wintertime we have probably 20 guys here.  We have 14 full time employees and Joan (Highway Clerk Joan Kobasa) and I.  90% of the time we have a part time roadside mower operator and in the winter we'll have three wingmen here.

LS: What else would you like people to know about your candicacy?

JF: One thing we do that I think a lot of highway departments don't do -- I don't know of any that actually do -- is we actually help out the school a lot.  We do the paving at the school, we dig up their water line if something needs to be repaired down at the school and stuff, and I don't think most highway departments don't.

My way of looking at it is it's still taxpayers' money whether we're doing it or the school has to hire somebody else to do it.  We can do it a whole lot cheaper than hiring an outside person coming in.  I don't charge the school anything for helping them out.

There are a couple small things that they can help us out with when we need the help too, but I just feel it's the taxpayers money whether it's coming out of the Highway Department, the Town Board, or whether it's coming out of the school.  It's still taxpayers' money.

LS: You've done some work at the fire department haven't you? 

JF: Yes, we do the parking lots at all the fire departments and we roll the ball fields and carnival grounds before there is a carnival -- things like that to help out.  The same thing: it's still taxpayers' money, so why not do it if we have the time and we've got the equipment.  To me it would be senseless to go outside and hire it done.  So we do a lot of that.

And I'm definitely pro-Lansing School District.  I sent four kids there, still have a kid there.  He's a senior.  And that's where Sue works.  And they have been pretty good to us and great to our kids.  They got a great education.

LS: And you went through it yourself?

JF: Yes, I graduated from there.  Sue actually graduated from Ithaca but I graduated from Lansing.  I'm definitely blue and gold.

LS: What would you like voters to know about your candidacy that we haven't covered?

JF: Basically that if anybody has any problems they are more than welcome to come.  I'm not a telephone person.  If somebody has a problem I like to come and meet with them face to face and talk things out, or if they just have questions I have no problem with talking with them or coming to meetings or anything like that.  I would much rather talk face to face.

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