Voters in the Town of Lloyd will have two men to choose from when they enter the ballot box on Election Day and stare down at the Highway Superintendent line.
Both men claim some ties with Frank Lombardi, the current highway superintendent, and both have said they’d represent a continuation of the former Highway Department head’s legacy.
On other matters of highway maintenance and on the endorsements they’ve received, Leonard Auchmoody and Richard Klotz are a bit different, however. Here’s what the two men had to say about themselves during an interview last week with this paper.
Leonard Auchmoody
Leonard Auchmoody. (Photo by Lauren Thomas)
With a Republican endorsement, Leonard Auchmoody, 63, of Highland, hopes to win over the hearts of voters to become Lloyd’s next highway superintendent.
Auchmoody has not run for elected office before, but he has been asked before to run for highway superintendent and has had an ambition to take over when Lombardi left. “So when I found out that he was going to retire, I threw my hat in,” he said.
“I always thought it would be a really nice job to finish my career,” he added.
Despite his rightwing endorsement, the candidate downplayed the politics of the race. “I believe you’ve got to vote for the best person in the community,” he said, adding that the highway race shouldn’t be political.
Having grown up in a family that ran one of Lloyd’s garbage removal services, and having managed his own gravel bank since 1983, Auchmoody said he thought he had the necessary experience with big machinery to take over as the head of the town Highway Department.
Auchmoody stressed care and maintenance of equipment as an important step he wouldn’t skip.
When asked what the biggest challenge facing roads in Lloyd, the candidate said he thought it’d be the finances.
“The biggest thing that’s going to stand in front of anyone who becomes the next highway superintendent is going to be the budget,” he said. “We’re going to have to learn how to save money. We’re going to have to learn how to take care of our machines.”
Auchmoody also said he’d make it a point to spend all of his work day at the highway garage. “As far as I’m concerned, this is a full-time job,” he said.
Voters who vote for Auchmoody can look forward to a department that would take their phone calls all through the storm, a department that would listen to them.
“I am sure beyond a doubt that if I take over as highway superintendent I could get along with the men, I could get along with the union, I could get along with the Town Board,” he said.
One way the Republican-endorsed candidate would try to figure out the problems on town roads is to talk to local school bus drivers. They’re the ones who experience the roads every day, he added.
