On the ballot for the Nov. 3 election, Ancram voters will choose between Republican Rick Dubray and Democrat Joe Brown to fill a vacant seat on the Town Board. Early voting begins Oct. 24 through Nov. 1.
Joe Brown, the Democratic candidate, grew up in New York City, and worked as a journalist for 24 years. Brown moved to Ancram full-time in 2019, and has since served on town committees, and has helped organize community events.
Running against Brown is Rick Dubray, the Republican candidate. Dubray was born and raised in Connecticut, and has lived in Ancram for more than 40 years. He owns his own property maintenance business in town, where he helps residents mow lawns, cut trees, and gravel driveways. This is Dubray’s second time running for Town Board. In 2025, he ran for the same seat and lost by 18 votes. Voters instead elected Jennifer Boice, a Republican, and Amy Gold, a Democrat, both of whom currently serve on the board.
The winner will serve on the Town Board through December 2027. When Colleen Lutz was elected supervisor last year, she vacated her seat on the Town Board. In February the board interviewed six candidates for the position, but ultimately decided not to appoint anyone, waiting instead for voters to pick this year. Now, the elected member will serve the remainder of Lutz’s original term
The Herald asked both candidates what they like most about Ancram and what changes they would like to see in town government, if elected. Here’s what they had to say:
What do you think makes Ancram a good place to live?
Brown: We didn’t intend to move here. We bought the house as a weekend place but then when we started meeting our neighbors, it really started to feel like home. I don’t think we could even move our house at this point because we’re so attached to the people who live around us in our little corner of Ancram. The more people in town that I meet, I just keep making friends. Between the casual run-ins at the Little Store or at the Farmer’s Wife, and then the community events that I’ve been participating in, I really like the feeling of community here. I grew up in New York City. Unlike a lot of people, I think New York City is actually a pretty friendly place because you’ve kind of got to be if you want to live in close proximity to people. But the community there just has a different feeling. The community here is less dependent on your social circumstances or your industry.
Like a lot of parents, I’m very focused on the quality of my daughter’s childhood, and the community piece of that does factor in significantly, because I know that if I needed to, I could call a neighbor and they would come over and watch her while there’s some emergency. She’s safe here. The air is clean and it’s beautiful, and she gets to run outside all day, every day, rain, shine, snow. It’s a lovely place to grow up, and I love that for her.
Dubray: This is a quiet little tiny town. It’s agricultural, and if you’re driving through it, it’s beautiful. Other towns have kind of grown way up too much. They’re like little tiny cities going through them now and I like this one here because it’s a very quiet, quaint little town. It’s always been agricultural and the people are real nice.
What do you think the current town government is doing well and what, in your opinion, can it do better?
Brown: One thing I really respect and appreciate about the people on the town board is that they all clearly care very deeply about the town and bring a different corner of experience to it. Having members of the fire company on the town board allows us to better understand something that is one of the biggest single line items on an Ancram taxpayer’s combined bill.
I think they’re having a lot of trouble communicating without tension. Even when there’s no blow up, there’s some kind of contentious moment, you can sense the undercurrent of tension between the members, and it’s inappropriate. The attitude of the board should reflect the attitude of the town. I want a difference of opinions on my town board as a citizen. It’s good to have a variety of opinions, and lived experiences but it’s not good to have people who always seem to be on the verge of jumping down each other’s throat. That’s what it feels like, and they have to figure that out. Not everybody’s gonna get what you want, but they need to be able to see the other person’s point of view and believe that some idea that was not theirs is the right answer for their constituents, and right now, I just don’t believe they’re willing to do that.
Dubray: Well, they could actually start using a little common sense, and look at how they’re spending the tax money. The amount of money that they put into that pavilion building [is] ridiculous. We could put our money to a lot better use than wasting it for something like that. The way they’re wanting to do it, they want to use it as a rental and I don’t believe that any municipality building or property should be a money maker.
Why should voters elect you to be part of Ancram’s Town Board?
Brown: I’ve been involved with the town since I got here. I think I’ve shown, even before stepping on to the ballot, that I’m committed to being a part of the community I serve. I’m on the Board of Assessment Review. I’m on the Climate Smart Task Force. I helped organize the potluck, I helped organize the yard sale. Regardless of whether I get elected, I’m gonna be involved in town and so if you want to see somebody who’s already shown their desire to be involved in town, then that’s me. I’m here and I put the work in.
Dubray: I’m running to get on the town board where I can help the people in this town cope with the prices of the taxes and stuff like that. We have senior citizens in this town right now. They are going to have a very hard time heating their homes, buying heating oil because it’s so expensive. It’s going to be hard for the senior citizens because social security doesn’t really cover enough to help them. We should be looking as a town for ways to help them with their heat problem and their power bills being so gosh darn high.
The candidates participated in an Oct. 17 Meet the Candidates forum, moderated by The Herald, where they answered a series of questions relating to town government, including their thoughts on Ancram’s zoning code and Flock Safety cameras:
What is one change that you would like to make to the zoning code?
Brown: I’d like to see us take our zoning code and be aggressively updating it for more environmentally sensitive building policies. Especially in the affordability issues around oil and gas, I think this becomes a less polarizing issue. We should be pushing electrification, we should be incentivizing solar and we should be protecting our very special and beautiful town by encouraging environmentally sensitive development more than we currently are.
Dubray: A young couple cannot afford three acres of property. It is just too much, and to pay tax on that, and then after you buy the land, you’re looking at putting on a home, you’ve got to figure about $150,000 to $200,000. If we could reduce the size of the lot and areas, they can afford to buy a lot and be able to start off.
That would give our young couples a chance to own a home and own a piece of property. Talking about rentals, rent around here is crazy. You’re talking $1,800 to $2,300 a month plus utility. Then you’re going to try to pay car insurance and everything else. Renting is not what it’s about. Right now, if you can get the zoning change, you can put one acre lots, and they’ve got decent, double wide homes. You can put a 5/12 roof pitch on it. It looks exactly like the stick built house. They’re actually cheaper for taxing. That’s what we should do.
What is your stance on Flock Safety cameras?
Brown: I think this goes beyond Flock cameras, honestly. Doorbell cameras, nest cameras, all of these cameras have digital information on it that invades our privacy in some cases. It can be subpoenaed by law enforcement, and we don’t control what they do after they get it. But we can [control], and so I think it’s important to work on a town level to control how any data taken from any camera in Ancram — how long it is kept on state servers, how long it is kept on private servers, because New York State Home Law Home Rule law does give us broad authority to control that. So I think we need to expand our view beyond Flock and take our residents’ privacy very seriously.
Dubray: Well, short and sweet about it, I don’t care for it a bit. I would be hoping if I get [elected] to Town Board, or if I don’t, I hope our Town Board holds to it, where it holds our privacy more. We do not, as a community, need Flock cameras.