Eli Ruiz | Democrat William Rieber, left, and son Sean celebrate Bill’s victory in the Town of Thompson race to succeed outgoing Supervisor Tony Cellini, who is retiring after 20 years.

Winners savor election victories

Story by Eli Ruiz
ROCK HILL — November 8, 2013 — BHR (Bernie’s) was headquarters election night Tuesday for Sullivan County’s Democratic Party. A party that saw a complete sweep in the all important Town of Thompson elections.
Thompson Supervisor candidate, now Supervisor-elect, William Rieber, was present with family and supporters as poll results came in. By 10:30 p.m. the numbers pointed to a sure, and expected victory for the second time candidate.
“I’m pleased. I’m overly pleased that the people have spoken and have found me qualified and capable to serve as supervisor of the biggest township in the county,” said Rieber. “If this gambling referendum goes through the work to be done in the Town of Thompson, and in the county as a whole, will be huge. I think my experience spoke to voters in this election.”
As the results for various local races poured in, the one vote on everybody’s mind was Proposition 1 – the referendum on casino gambling that could have huge ramifications for Sullivan County and New York State. Up to two Sullivan-based Class III casinos lay in the balance Tuesday night, and the crowd gathered at BHR knew it.
BHR’s owner, local businessman and developer Randy Resnick, who along with local resident Amy Goodstein and others, spearheaded the local effort to get the word out regarding Tuesday’s gambling referendum and their “Vote Yes” message, was glued to the television.
“I’m staying until it comes in [the preliminary results on the Prop. 1 vote],” said Resnick. “We really pushed ourselves to the limit on this and it’s going to be just an amazing thing for the area.”
Another big winner Tuesday was Thompson Councilman Richard Sush, who won his fourth term on the town’s board. Offered Sush, regarding the Thompson Democratic sweep, “It’s really exciting. We had a strong ticket with strong, experienced candidates and we ran very hard. We prevailed, as they say.”
As far as working with Rieber, who will officially take over the supervisor post held for two decades by the retiring Tony Cellini in January, Sush said, “I was on the board with Billy for some time and I was very disappointed when he didn’t win in the last election because I was really looking forward to working with him. I’m extremely pleased to finally get that chance.”
Town Liberty Dems Brian McPhillips and Russell Reeves took an open Liberty Town Board seat, and displaced incumbent Councilman Chris Austin in the pair’s first stab at politics.
Asked Tuesday night why he ran, McPhillips offered, “Well, it first started out with the big zoning issues in the Town and Village. They’ve [the Liberty board] made a lot of progress in that department, but I think it [the zoning issues] needs to be cleared up and better defined. There’s still a lot of work to be done in Liberty and I think they [the board] were kind of handcuffing business. I think Charlie [Town of Liberty Supervisor Charlie Barbuti] was fighting a one man battle in that aspect. I really look forward to working with Supervisor Barbuti in getting more businesses open in the town and moving Liberty to a more prosperous future. With Prop. 1 possibly passing tonight we’ve got a golden opportunity to put Liberty back on the map. Everything is opening up for us and now I think we’ve got as big an opportunity as ever to get some very positive things done in Liberty.”
As for that Prop. 1 vote that was on everyone’s minds, by 10:45 p.m., and with most precincts results in, casino gambling looked to be more of a reality in the Catskills than ever before.
The reality of the moment was not lost on Resnick: “This is the most important day in Sullivan County’s history,” he exclaimed. “I think we can now get to work on building this area up to its former glory . . . It’s the biggest day in Sullivan County history and all of us here can say we were a part of it.”