Marcel Nagele sees himself as the answer to cronyism and inaction by Woodstock’s town government.
He joins former Onteora school board member Laurie Osmond and Station Bar & Curio owner Lily Korolkoff in seeking the Democratic primary nod for one of two seats up for election to the town board.
Nagele, who runs the excavating business Woodstock Dirtworks, has been a critic of town supervisor Bill McKenna for a long time, starting with the proposed Hotel Selina on the grounds of the former Pinecrest Lodge in Woodstock. Nagele became involved in 2018 when he found that project next door to his home disruptive.
“The project was not only disruptive to my neighbors, with ear-splitting noise and blinding lights, it was, I discovered, an illegal site development,” he said. “Me and my associate were successful in getting that shut down, which was not what we wanted to do. We had to spend over $25,000 to get the town to enforce the law. And the end result was they got shut down. Now it sits over there abandoned. That doesn’t benefit anybody.”
Nagele said the matter could have been resolved with a simple phone call.
Faced with health problems, Nagele was told by doctors to reduce stress in his life.
“They say when you get into your fifties the engine light comes on,” he said. Heeding his doctor’s advice, Nagele downsized his business. He says he now has time to be involved in government.
Shortly after, quite by accident, Nagele became involved in the Shady dump situation.
He had spoken to Reynolds Lane resident Frank Eighmey and then witnessed McKenna’s interaction with him at a meeting. He didn’t think McKenna was handling the situation appropriately.
“I saw Bill doing to him [Eighmey] exactly what he had done to me,” Nagele said. “I waited outside for Frank after the meeting, called him over, spoke with him. I said, listen, you’re in trouble.”
Nagele became involved with the group Woodstockers United for Change when PFAS was discovered in the municipal water system. “There’s seven of us, I guess we all have our area of expertise,” he said. “Everybody in that group is really focused and really smart, and are dedicated to trying to make a change. It’s not just about the Shady dump. It’s not just about the municipal water system. It’s about having a proper warming center. It’s about trying to get something done with the police situation. We’re talking some about the affordable-housing issues.”
Nagele criticizes McKenna for handling investigations into the conduct of town employees.
He faults former acting town environmental commission chair Erin Moran for using foul language in a town email and former ZBA chair Gordon Wemp for saying ‘fuck you’ to Nagele in a Facebook post.
Nagele maintains that he’s not an angry person.
“There’s a certain segment of the people out there that are for the administration, that will want to brand me as being angry,” he said, “And I tell them, Don’t mistake anger for passion. I’m in this because I want to be. If I’m passionate and frustrated, it may look like I’m angry. It’s passion.”
Nagele cautions that the town needs to be careful when it comes to tackling the housing crisis. He doesn’t believe the proposed zoning changes have enough protections.
“If you’re going to make changes to the zoning law under the guise that it’s going to be to create affordable housing for this segment of the population, you’ve got to be really careful,” he said.
More public discussion is needed
“One of the things that I feel is missing is [that] the town board operates behind the scenes,” he said. “The people do not get the privilege of the discussion. We’ve got a town board that is running our town with, if you averaged it out, 20-minute town-board meetings. That’s just a formality to throw the resolution out that you’ve already worked out behind the scenes.”
How will he deal with that situation? “I’m going to bring the discussion to the people,” he replied.
Nagele equates not having discussions of the issues in front of the public with censorship.
“The purpose of the board meeting is to have the discussion, not just the formal rubber-stamp thing,” he said. “With the Shady dump, I’d be sitting at that table and saying, well, the consultant’s report is right here. And they’ve identified this. I’ve got consultant reports from five consultants. They’re all in agreement.”
He thinks what’s missing is the conversation with the people. “You know, that’s a big deal,” he said.
He’s confident that “I can give it some good direction, and I can do it in a fair manner, and I think I have the skills to bring it to the table and eliminate the lack of transparency,” Nagele said.
What’s lacking are integrity and civility. He isn’t going to sit at that table and start cursing at someone.
If Nagele gets on the board, he said he wouldn’t run for re-election if he was in the minority.
“If in four years I’m still fighting this dynamic that we have right now where it’s just three voting blocs that step against the right thing, and I’m stuck in the minority and can’t get anything done, I’m not going to run again,” he said.
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