Larson looks to stay on town council

Tony Larson is one of two incumbents who has re-filed for his seat on the town council.

Larson said he’s been on the council for at least 12 years, pointing out that in years he planned to take off he won as a write-in candidate. “I’m a lifer here,” he said, further adding his wife was born and raised here and they raised their children here. He’s been employed with NWBOCES for almost 15 years and his wife is a Special Education aide at the high school.

Larson said the two biggest issues facing the town are the sanitation and the water issues. “I don’t mind looking into the Lysite well,” he said, “but anything that’s going to affect the Big Spring I’m totally against.” At the same time, he noted, it’s important to make sure the water is affordable for everyone.

As for sanitation, Larson said the DEQ is “basically forcing our hand at that,” saying the town needs to move what it’s doing. “We’ve got a few more years we can use to dump for construction waste but then we’re going to have to find some place for a transfer station and we’re going to have to start hauling our trash to some other community.” What scares him more than anything about that, he added, is the cost.

One thing Larson would really like to see is the town and county working together rather than being so adversarial. “As long as I’ve been on there, and before that, it’s always been that way and I don’t know how you change that. I think the town and county would work a whole lot better together than what we do.” He’d also like to see some growth in the town, and noted there used to be a variety of stores downtown.