Ben Lapham, Sarah Driscoll in hot race for Glens Falls Ward 4 seat

By Ben Westcott, Chronicle Staff Writer

Interviewed by The Chronicle, Republican Glens Falls Ward 4 Common Council candidate Sarah Driscoll took issue with Democratic incumbent Ben Lapham’s post on Facebook opposing purchase of the Crockwell Pond property because “the city does not have enough resources to be chasing old men’s fantasies.”

“I wouldn’t put my colleagues on blast like that publicly,” Mrs. Driscoll said. “I would work with them, speak with them directly, work out conflicts professionally.

“A lot of people support me not because they know who I am but because they know who he is,” she added.

Mr. Lapham meanwhile doubles down.

“To me, it’s the ultimate old man’s network,” he said. “Why is this board only asking Glens Falls for money for a place that’s not in Glens Falls? I don’t know really why the city bought the [Tennis & Swim Club] property in the first place. I don’t know why we haven’t gone to the county or Queensbury to share in this. This is a place that’s in Queensbury.

“We pay like over $200,000 in taxes to Queensbury just for the property that we own, so when Councilmember [Bob] Landry was saying that the Glens Falls Police go to the property, it boggles my mind that the Sheriff’s Department isn’t patrolling a part of Queensbury.
“I didn’t even realize until the city was being asked to pay for the Crockwell Pond parcel just how much this project was on the back of Glens Falls taxpayers.

“And you can remember repeatedly if you go back through all these Council recordings Councilmember Landry saying ‘This will not be shouldered by the taxpayers of Glens Falls.’ And it’s just a lie.”

“I would like to engage Queensbury and Warren County on how we could move together on this property,” Mr. Lapham said.
Mrs. Driscoll said she has watched Mr. Lapham “speak over people” at Council meetings, and in contrast describes herself as “not confrontational.”

“I have a very respectful demeanor,” she said. “I’m not coming anywhere with an axe to grind. I’m not into battling amongst my colleagues. I want to work together with everyone, so that the government can run cohesively and that it’s not about me and my opinions or what I feel, it’s about what’s best for Glens Falls.”

Mr. Lapham defends engaging in heated exchanges with Mayor Bill Collins in meetings, saying, “There’s some things I’m passionate about.”

He said, “The mayor had at one point told me he didn’t want me to talk to him except for when it’s on the record, so a lot of times I’m hearing stuff for the first time from him. I think a mayor must make an effort to communicate outside of just in the Council, and I feel like he does not really make that effort.

“I’ve been told that I’m being rude for asking questions about how money’s being spent. I don’t give the mayor a carte blanche no matter who the mayor is.

“I think the most important thing for Council members is to be financial stewards for the city….

“During my four years on the Council, it’s been kind of frustrating how much disconnect there is between the mayor and the community, and the way that he communicates to the Council.

“I think the mayor kind of does things on his own, and is kind of more like ‘Trust me, it will be okay in the end.’ And I find that’s a very difficult way for me to collaborate.”

Mr. Lapham supports Ward 3 Councilwoman and current mayoral candidate Diana Palmer over Mayor Collins.

“I know she puts in an enormous amount of effort,” he said.

“She’s very educated and very talented. She mediates people, meets people halfway, considers things. I’ve had disagreements with her from time to time, but I always respect where she’s coming from and the way she’s able to articulate it and prove her point.”

Mrs. Driscoll says “I haven’t really made up my mind yet,” on the mayor’s race.

“I’m not really too focused on that. They’re both Democrat mayors running against each other. So I’m not really going to comment on that from a political standpoint.”

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Mrs. Driscoll, 38, worked for the State Comptroller’s office for a decade doing financial audits and training. Now she said she is a stay-at-home mom homeschooling her two kids when she was approached that “Glens Falls’ Fourth Ward really needs a Republican candidate to run.”

“So I knew this was my shot to get back into government and use my skills to support my community,” she says.

“I love Glens Falls. I have this great background in local government. It’s kind of a niche background. So I was like yeah, I would love to do that, and I feel like I have the skill set to be a good asset to the Common Council. I think my career really perfectly set me up for this position.”

The Republican Mrs. Driscoll says, “I used to be a very proud Democrat until 2016. I was more leaning for the Bernie side, and then as I watched the primaries and all the voting going towards Bernie and then the DNC just choosing their candidate anyway it kind of broke the illusion that any party cared about what the people thought, so I became an Independent.”

In 2024, she says she wanted to vote in a primary and needed to be in a party.

“I had been voting Republican, so I decided that I’m not going to play this middle game anymore. I’m going to jump in and be a Republican.”

She said she is homeschooling because “I wasn’t really for masking the children, and I kind of saw that if you’re going to put your kids in public school, they’re going to have to be subjected to whatever regulations the government and schools bring down on you.

“I’m also a Christian, and I feel that bringing God into the education of my children is very important.”

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Mr. Lapham, 57, a software engineer by trade, first ran for Council in 2017.

“I was kind of frustrated by a certain presidential election that had happened at the time,” he said with a laugh.

He lost that year but won in 2021. Now he seeks a second term.

“I care about the city, and I feel like there’s a lot of things that I’ve brought up over the past four years,” he said. “I want to see it through to completion.”

He sais his first term focus was on sidewalks and bikeability. “We’ve done some work. There’s actually sidewalks around the high school now – it didn’t connect before – but I think there’s a lot more to do.

“People are telling me that they know who I am because I’m the one who’s fought for the sidewalks,” he said.

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Both candidates say Fourth Warders are talking about the so-called “dayspenders” causing problems downtown.

“I feel it really needs to be a whole-of-community approach in dealing with this,” Mrs. Driscoll said. “I don’t think government on its own is going to solve it, or non-profits alone.

“I believe the people on the street deserve to be treated with dignity and have an opportunity to get their lives on track,” but added “we’ve worked really hard to get the downtown area to the beautiful place that it has become, and we all deserve to be feeling comfortable when we’re down there. So open drug use, vandalism, misuse of our facilities isn’t a thing that the people of Glens Falls should just accept.

“I feel like it’s a two-way street,” she said. “We respect you as a human being, and we need to get respect as a city, because we’ve built this city over time.

“It’s not an easy problem,” she said. “This is a national issue, and if there was an easy way to fix it, it probably wouldn’t exist in the first place.”

Mr. Lapham cited steps the city has taken like adding a licensed social worker, getting the police department up to full staff, and implementing a Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion (LEAD) program to “get low-level, non-violent drug offenders and people that have some behavioral things that are non-violent into either addiction programs or behavioral or mental health programs to help divert them from time in prison.”

Asked if he would push for the city to pass new legislation to address the issue, Mr. Lapham said, “I kind of feel like it’s not against the law to not have money or not have a home, and I’m not trying to criminalize those things. But if somebody is being belligerent and infringing on other people’s rights, those people need to be prosecuted. We’re not going to get anywhere with law enforcement diversion if law enforcement isn’t enforcing the laws that are on the books.”

Both candidates advocated for devising a plan for downtown growth.

Mr. Lapham said, “The whole business with the Market Center and the space downtown for the Farmers Market, there isn’t really a coherent business plan behind any of that. There isn’t a way of seeing where your investment is returning to value for the community.

“I hope if Diana were to be mayor, we’d get to being serious about putting together business plans and making sure we have things decided and a plan in place rather than just hoping it will go well because your intentions are good.”

On the state of the city in general, he said, “We’re in pretty good shape, but we’re really at a point where the federal cutbacks on things could make it really dicey in the future. We face more responsibility to cover things at the county, state and local level for services, because the federal government just seems like they are saying we don’t want to be in this business anymore.”

Mrs. Driscoll said, “I feel like we’re on the cusp of something that could be really great with downtown, and people want to make sure that we have a plan so it’s not going to be built and then not functioning. They want to see an overall plan for how Glens Falls is going to function and how we’re going to keep businesses in these new buildings and really get downtown to thrive in the long term.”

She said, “…having strong financial-minded people that have government experience is only going to benefit our community. It’s all about being smart, common sense, and small government for me. Keep the spending and budget under control.”

Asked if she likes her chances in the race, she said, “I am very hopeful that I’m going to win. I’ve been having a great response across the board from most people that I’ve talked to.”

Asked the same, Mr. Lapham said, “I’m not really much of a bettor. All I can do is just keep going out and getting my message out there the best I can.”

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