Dear Friends,
It is my honor and pleasure to contact you as someone I know is concerned about Monticello’s future to ask your support and your vote to re-elect me as a Village Trustee on March 20, 2012.
After four years on the Village Board, accomplishments I can point to include a 0% tax increase for 2011-2012 brought about by cutting unnecessary expenses, with no lay-offs; repaved 25 local streets; oversaw NYSDOT’s renovation of Broadway; lowering the sanitation rate from $104.00 to $88.00 per quarter for residents, and also cut commercial rates; kept water rates low while Monticello continues to provide the highest quality municipal water in the region; working with seniors for improved access for the disabled to the Stroebele Community and parking lot; and working together with homeowners to bring properties up to code.
Grants obtained with my advocacy and active participation have included:
2011
• $120,000 grant for decorative lighting: federal highway funds via Congressman Hinchey;
• $15,000,000 million Broadway Project Construction 2008 to 2011;
2010
• $5,000 grant: Sullivan Renaissance, for improvement of the front of the Village Hall;
• $6,447,000 grant: USDA Federal Stimulus for wastewater treatment plant upgrade;
• $7,984,000 low interest loan: US Department of Agriculture for the water and sewer system;
• $15,000,000 grant for original Water System Upgrade (plus $2,600,000 still pending);
2008 & 2009
• $1,700,000 RESTORE-NY grant for Entertainment Village on Broadway, starting this spring;
• $330,000 grant: NYS DOT for Walkable Monticello sidewalks, completed on Route 42 South.
I have contributed successful ideas and devoted countless hours working on committees to bring such activities as a Halloween parade for youth, community Thanksgiving, multi-faith Broadway holiday decor, hosting a massive farmer’s market and street fair and the first alcohol- and drug-free “Night Out” on Broadway in August, planting 8,000 daffodils on Broadway that will blossom this spring, and other major local events.
I have proven my ability to work together with everyone for a unified and growing Monticello. I will need your vote in March in order to see our village repopulate Broadway with successful businesses after the series of closings and bankruptcies that began 8 to 10 years ago. We are turning Monticello around!
Please help continue economic successes and emphasis on positive activities for local youth that have begun. Contrary to the negative gadfly’s who are vocal on the Internet and in print media, businesses are even now opening or moving to the Village. The work of the last four years, thanks to your trust and confidence, is finally paying off.
I will continue to work with Monticello’s finest and as liaison to the Sullivan County Sheriff’s Department to make our community safer by preventing crime and holding criminals accountable, while at the same time improving working conditions for our Police Department who are committed to respectful community policing. Don’t let this stop!
Overcoming obstacles, I have fought – and will continue – to make our village better, not bitter. We have to work together. Friends and family know me as “a fighter”. I am tenacious and persistent. I will not give up on Monticello!
I work part-time with my husband Tom Rue as the office manager at Choices Mental Health Counseling PLLC on Pelton Street here in the Village of Monticello. We have three grown children and four wonderful grandchildren.
Call or e-mail me to discuss any issues concerning our “new” Monticello; now or at any time in the future before or after my re-election when I can assist you in any way at all. I always return phone calls from constituents.
Any support you can give – including your vote on March 20, 2012 to help re-elect me will be genuinely appreciated. Please don’t give up now.
Sincerely,
Carmen Rue, Monticello Village Trustee
