Sykes seeking opportunities for town’s growth

By Dan Hust

CALLICOON — Ed Sykes gives a simple reason for pursuing the supervisorship of the Town of Delaware:
“I love this town, and I want to keep it the way I love it.”
His memory of Delaware and his home town of Callicoon goes back more than 50 years, when his family moved here from Narrowsburg (and originally New York City).
He spent his teenage years in Hankins, graduating from the former Delaware Valley school in 1962 and ultimately becoming the owner of Mike Preis Insurance for 25 years.
He’s since sold that business but retains a variety of real estate holdings in Callicoon and Roscoe, and stays involved in the insurance world through the Callicoon Cooperative Insurance Company and as president and chairman of the Southern Tier Title Agency.
He’s also on the board of the Jeff Bank and the Sullivan County Industrial Development Agency (IDA), a Callicoon Kiwanian, retired Callicoon fireman, and a founding member of the Callicoon Business Association.
He’s served on the town board twice – briefly to replace Bill Moran, who became supervisor, and now since April, replacing retired Councilman Matt Hofer. Both were appointments.
He also just completed a quarter-century on the town’s Zoning Board of Appeals, much of that time as its chairman.
Married in 1966, Sykes has three kids and seven grandkids, and it is their future the 67-year-old wants to impact.
“I want to make sure my grandkids have the same opportunities I had growing up here,” he says.
Sykes aims to accomplish that in part by encouraging more economic opportunities in Delaware, through the IDA and direct outreach to investors.
“We have to find people willing to invest their time and money,” he says.
That may include the gas drilling industry, he acknowledges.
“I am not against safe gas drilling,” Sykes explains, confident that the coming state regulatory structure and individual leases will protect residents.
“Everybody who signs a lease who’s smart should put protections in that lease for them and for the people around them,” he remarks.
Sykes is a firm believer in private property rights.
“I’ve had some long conversations with people about property rights,” he says. “... They’re really worried about their rights being taken away from them.
“You just can’t do that,” he continues. “... It would be no different from telling them they couldn’t lumber or tap for maple syrup or mine sand and gravel.”
That pro-drilling stance, however, has knocked him off the Democratic line on November’s ballot. Even though Sykes is a registered Democrat, he’s running on the Republican line because dozens of town Democrats chose opponent Steve Lundgren at the party’s recent caucus.
“I was impressed by the extent of their organization,” Sykes says, admitting he was caught by surprise.
Many of those Democrats oppose drilling, at least in its present fracking form, but Sykes doesn’t believe drilling will harm the town’s open spaces or agricultural efforts – in fact, he predicts it will help preserve those pastures, noting that on a recent trip to Dimock, PA (where drilling is ongoing) he saw only a few wells visible on open land from the highway.
He also talked to around a dozen people from that area and found only praise for the industry’s financial benefits.
That said, Sykes is aware of the concerns and controversies surrounding drilling and acknowledges that “probably we should examine what we can do to protect ourselves.”
That doesn’t, however, include a zoning-linked prohibition like neighboring towns are exploring.
“I just don’t go along with this idea of banning it. I think that’s a foolhardy idea,” he says, worried drilling companies would sue, win and bankrupt the town. “How would you like to stand up to Exxon with their 35 lawyers and hundreds and hundreds of thousands of dollars?”
He also expects landowners interested in drilling would sue, further costing the town.
As a businessman and town board member, Sykes is focused on the economics of the township.
“I think we’re doing a great job with the budget this year,” he says, marvelling at the participation – and sacrifices – of every town employee to ensure Delaware remains within its taxpayers’ means.
“That’s the kind of stuff that makes it work,” he affirms. “... I want to keep that kind of working-together atmosphere.”
He expects the town’s coming tax increase won’t exceed the state-mandated two percent cap, which he supports.
“The cap forces you to find alternatives, to save money in ways you may not have thought of before ... so from that perspective, I think it’s a good thing.”
There are financial pressures – like the bonding of the new emergency generator at the sewer plant in Callicoon, replacing one that burned out during a recent flood.
But Sykes is insistent that tax hikes be kept to a minimum and that struggling property owners, like local farmers, be assisted.
“The center of agriculture [in Sullivan County] is here,” he observes. “Part of what makes this town so unique is that agriculture. So what can we do to help them?”
He’d like to ensure they survive.
“Some of the farms are going to have to diversify,” he acknowledges, “but I really want to preserve that part of town. That’s the way I want to keep it.”
He’s not against development that spreads beyond Delaware’s downtowns, but “whatever comes in should be compatible with the area.”
Compatibility of uses has been an issue he’s tackled often on the Zoning Board – sometimes with controversy. In a much-publicized battle, the town has been sued by residents challenging the propriety of a kiln-dried firewood operation next to their home in a rural residential area.
Sykes argues that the Zoning Board’s mission is to ensure the town’s zoning is followed.
“The only problem with that [project] was the scope, but at the time we didn’t know it,” he says, nevertheless defending the town’s approvals of it as proper.
“If we don’t like a particular business there,” he states, “we have to change the rules.”
Delaware is considering a rule change elsewhere: possibly reducing the three assessors to one.
Sykes says he’s not yet decided on that issue, still weighing people’s arguments pro and con.
“I don’t have an agenda other than what’s best for the town,” he says.
He doesn’t think many of the people who chose Lundgren over him at the caucus understand that (though Sykes is complimentary to Lundgren, deeming him “a nice fellow”).
And he doesn’t cater to accusations that he is part of the “establishment.”
“If someone can find fault with somebody for being involved in their community, shame on them,” Sykes states, noting his years of cooking pancakes and burgers at countless community fundraisers, among other efforts.
“I’ve lived here all my adult life and invested all I have here,” he adds. “If that’s the ‘establishment,’ I’m guilty.”