Candidate Profile: Antonio Gonçalves For Lewisboro Town Supervisor

LEWISBORO, NY — Election season 2023 is here and there are plenty of races with candidates eager to serve in elected office.

Patch asked candidates to answer questions about their campaigns and will be publishing candidate profiles as Election Day draws near.

Name: Antonio “Tony” Gonçalves

Age: 60

Hometown: Goldens Bridge, NY (Town of Lewisboro)

Running for which office: Town Supervisor

Education: Bachelor of Engineering, Hofstra University

Political experience: Town Councilman (2018 – 2021), Town Supervisor (2022-2023)

Work experience: Worked for various companies in the private sector providing call center systems and also data aggregators and data compilers serving various verticals including Financial, Marketing, Automotive, and various information services. My roles ranged from systems support, to managing professional services, Project Management and then into Sales & Business Development including strategic partnerships. My private sector work included Domestic and International engagements.

Family: My wife and I raised two sons in Lewisboro, they both attended KLSD.

Campaign website: https://lewisborodemocrats.com/

Why are you seeking this office?

I had a successful first term and have unfinished business and so I am hoping to continue for a second term.

What are the major differences between you and the other candidate(s) seeking this post?

I had many years of volunteer service to the Town and continue to serve as a volunteer with the Lewisboro Lions Club where our motto is "We Serve." I know this town very well and was a very engaged Councilman for 4 years and worked closely with the prior Town Supervisor Peter Parsons and all this prepared me very well for the Supervisor role. In short, the major difference is experience. My opponent has zero experience.

What is the single most pressing issue facing your constituents and what do you intend to do about it?

Housing. During my two years this has come up primarily in discussions with our volunteer FDs and our seniors. Housing would help with recruitment and retention of our volunteer ambulance & firefighters and would allow our seniors and young people to be able to live in town on their limited budget.

How would you address the affordable housing issue in the community?

This is related to the question above, we would have to take advantage of our hamlet centers to create much needed rental housing with easy pedestrian access to amenities. We need to think smartly about using underutilized space for housing and maybe include some mixed use, such as MTA parking lots and shopping centers.

How would you protect the drinking water in the community?

I am doing this today with the water districts owned by the Town and this has included pursuing and successfully obtaining grant awards for additional filtration, working closely with various agencies such as County and State Dept of Health. With upcoming potential changes by the Federal EPA with regards to contamination resulting from “forever chemicals” such as PFOA/PFOS the hope is that the grant opportunities for municipal water systems can be applied to private residential wells. I will do all I can to potentially expand our successes to the protection of private water systems. The other component tied to protecting drinking water is having proper wastewater management. I am currently engaged in what will ultimately be two major wastewater projects whose goal is to protect our lakes. If nothing is done the aquifers from where we source our well water will also be impacted by failing septic systems.

What other issues do you intend to address during your campaign?

Expanded cellular and communications services. It is critical that we have access to 911 and emergency services from every corner of Town. This is something that has been talked about since I joined the board in 2018, we made progress in this area with the installation of the cell tower at the LVAC location in Cross River, for the first time ever, we now have cell coverage at the John Jay campus but we need to do more. This cellular network is critical to our first responders including our Police Dept. I would also like to expand recreational options for residents such as pickleball and platform tennis.

What accomplishments in your past would you cite as evidence you can handle this job?

1. Facilities upgrades including new or upgraded playgrounds and ball fields in all parks, new cell tower, improved NYSEG service, improved cable service including pressing Altice to rollout their new fiberoptic based service.
2. Fiscal responsibility including a good 2023 budget and an unprecedented $5M in grants in two years.
3. Community building; we have had a successful couple of years of great community events and I hope to keep those going and do more.
4. Negotiated 4 collective bargaining agreements with the unions.

What is the best advice anyone ever gave you?

This position is very busy and multi-faceted. It takes a lot of energy and time to do this job and it is easy for little things to get lost in the daily shuffle but I always take time to listen. The best advice given to me which I brought into this job is to listen. In the private sector I listened to my colleagues, customers and staff. I listen to the residents of this town. It is the only way to understand the needs of the community and I take each request, suggestion into consideration in my decision making. I have an open-door policy and can be reached on my cell phone at any time.

Is there anything else you would like voters to know about yourself and your positions?

I would like voters to know that I care about Lewisboro and its residents and that I intend to continue the good work I have done with the help of Dan Welsh and Rich Sklarin, my two board members who are up for re-election.

The energy that I see displayed around town is amazing and it is this energy that keeps me going. I am very excited about the future of Lewisboro as an open and inclusive Town and I am looking forward to future projects which will turn our hamlet centers into vibrant parts of our town and destinations that people want to visit and stay in.