Pine Plains Faces a Choice Between Two Walshes for Town Supervisor

In the vote for Town Supervisor, residents of Pine Plains will choose between two men with the same last name but different visions for the town’s future. 

Brian Walsh, the Republican incumbent and a lifelong resident who has led the town for four years, faces Kevin Walsh, a Democrat and current Town Board member. While both relish Pine Plains’ small-town character and volunteer spirit, their positions — especially over wastewater infrastructure and the use of eminent domain — underscore contrasting ideas about how the town should grow.

Brian Walsh has spent his entire life in Pine Plains. He works in the Pine Plains Central School District’s maintenance department, coaches youth sports, and serves as chief of the volunteer fire department. His campaign message is rooted in preserving the town’s rural identity, keeping taxes stable, and making changes only when necessary.

“I was born and raised here,” he said. “This is my town. I want to see improvements — but slow improvements. Pine Plains is unique for what it is. I don’t want it to change that much.”

Kevin Walsh, who moved to Pine Plains more than 35 years ago, is a retired electronics engineer and musician who joined the Town Board in 2023. While he agrees that change should be deliberate, he believes the town has fallen behind on infrastructure and transparency. “It’s a slow process,” he said. “And I think it could go a little bit faster if like minds work together and if I’m at the reins.”

The sharpest policy divide between the two candidates centers on whether Pine Plains should establish a centralized wastewater system for its business district — a project that has been studied for years but stalled over questions of cost, available land, and public appetite.

Brian Walsh said the town can “manage to a point” without a municipal sewer, arguing that downtown’s limited footprint and the high expense make such a system impractical. He emphasized that the cost for construction and maintenance of any new system would fall on downtown property owners. “It’s not going to be like your water bill at $45 a quarter — it’ll be a lot higher,” he said. “You have to look at the center of town. There’s no place in the center of town to build a brand-new building. So we have to utilize what we have now.”

He drew a firm line on the use of eminent domain. “I refuse to, nor will I ever, eminent domain anybody,” he said. “It is their property. They’ve earned that property. They’re entitled to that property.” At the Oct. 13 Meet the Candidates forum, Walsh reiterated his opposition, adding that St. Anthony’s Catholic Church — long rumored as a potential site for the system — had “no interest” in selling land to the town.

Kevin Walsh, who chairs the town’s Wastewater Committee, called a central system “absolutely crucial” to the town’s long-term viability. “Businesses cannot operate to a greater capacity than they currently do because of the situation,” he said. He noted that Dutchess County’s stringent septic regulations make future expansion difficult without a shared system. While he said he generally opposes eminent domain, he left the door open if negotiations failed and the project proved essential. “When there’s a strong municipal need that benefits the community as a whole, then yes, absolutely,” he said. At the candidates forum, he clarified that there was “no plan” to take the church’s land but said, “taking property from them, while it’s not ideal, is not out of the question either.”

Both candidates support building a new Town Hall, though they differ on how to fund and structure it.

Brian Walsh said he supports moving forward on the North Main Street project currently under design with LaBella Associates but believes residents should have a direct vote on whether to proceed once costs are known. He said the project would likely need to be financed through tax dollars over time but added that he is not in favor of raising taxes to pay for it. “Ultimately, it’s going to come down to dollars and cents,” he said. “There are not that many grants out there to pay for this project. So it would have to be paid for by taxes or over a length of time.”

Kevin Walsh, by contrast, said he is “100 percent in favor” of a new Town Hall but wants the project to move faster and with greater transparency. He has keeping the police department and court in the existing building rather than moving them to  the new one. “It would probably reduce the cost to less than half of what they proposed,” he said. “We will find a way through.”

Both Walshes see revitalizing the hamlet’s business district as key to the town’s health. They agree Pine Plains should revive its business association and attract more local investment, though they differ on what role the government should play.

Kevin Walsh and Town Board member Jeannine Sisco helped bring the grant consulting firm Choice Words to assist the town in pursuing funding for economic development. He has made the lack of a full-service grocery store a central theme of his campaign, arguing that residents should not have to drive to neighboring towns for essentials. “We’re really hurting for a grocery store,” he said. “If I don’t get elected, then the backlash on that message was strong enough to say, you don’t want him doing that. If I do get elected, they clearly want it. That’ll settle a lot.”

Brian Walsh takes a more hands-off approach, saying the town’s role is to provide a welcoming environment, not to pick winners. “There’s a bunch of empty buildings,” he said. “Some of those empty buildings, the landowners, they just want it empty. They will not rent them out.” He said private property owners must “start low” with rents and help foster business growth gradually.

Brian Walsh frames his record on taxes as one of steady stewardship. “You can’t have a flat tax rate with a municipality like this,” he said. “You have to raise at least the 2 percent tax. You have to, because you have to survive.” He argues small, predictable increases prevent sudden spikes later on.

Kevin Walsh has criticized the town’s spending choices, pointing to roughly $20,000 spent on fireworks. “What about spending that money on the beach or recreation?” he asked.

Both candidates back the county’s new Accessory Dwelling Unit program as a way to address affordability. Brian Walsh said he supports ADUs as long as applicants have septic systems that can handle the extra load, noting that each must remain affordable for 10 years. Kevin Walsh called ADUs a “necessary tool but not enough,” saying Pine Plains needs broader strategies for workforce housing. “People cannot live in this town and work in this town,” he said. “Gentrification is real.”

Both acknowledge that communication from town government could be stronger — but they differ on what’s been done.

Kevin Walsh has described the town’s website as “inadequate” and said he handed in a list of fixes that were ignored. He pledges to overhaul the site and reintroduce a regular newsletter if elected. “No changes have been made,” he said. “That’s one thing you can be sure I will attack immediately.”

Brian Walsh said he previously published updates via a supervisor’s blog but paused to focus on the budget. He plans to restart monthly posts and invited residents to email suggestions for website improvements. “We haven’t received one suggestion since we put that out there,” he said.

For all their differences, the two Walshes share a similar vision of Pine Plains as a place defined by care and civility.

“Everybody, even if you don’t like that person, has everybody’s back,” Brian Walsh said. “That’s Pine Plains.”

Kevin Walsh echoed that sentiment: “Just go about your daily business, doing what it is that you do the best that you can do, being kind to other people and wishing everybody well. I can’t think of anything better to do than that.”