HISTORY MADE IN KINDERHOOK

Kinderhook’s newest Supervisor, Patsy Leader, was sworn in on New Year ’s Day at approximately 11:15 am by Columbia County Clerk Holly Tanner, beginning her term to serve as Supervisor for the county’s largest town, larger even than the City of Hudson, at over 8,000 residents. What makes this historical is that Ms. Leader is the first female to assume the office of Supervisor for the town since its inception in 1788.
 
“This is an historic event in this historic town,” stated Clerk Tanner as she welcomed the over 70 attendees to the ceremony,” and to be able to give the oath of office to a caring, compassionate and strong woman such as Patsy Leader is an honor for me.” 
 
Patsy Leader has strong roots in the town of Kinderhook, a resident of Niverville for over forty years.  She ran a small business for years in the village of Valatie and began her foray into politics ten years ago, running for the Kinderhook Town Board and never looking back. 
 
“I first decided to run for office ten years ago because I care greatly about this town,” stated Leader, “my daughter lives here, and my grandchildren, and we have a great town to live in so I wanted to do my part to keep it safe and also to help keep taxes down.  Community service has always been very important to me and I care a great deal about what happens in our town.  I ran for the right reasons – to make sure that the local government remains responsive to all our residents,” stated Leader.  “I greatly appreciate all the support I received over the course of the campaign, ultimately the voters spoke,” she said.
 
Patsy served as the Deputy Supervisor for the town for the past 8 years, which gave her a lot of hands-on experience, and she has a great team around her in returning town board members Tim Ooms and Phil Bickerton, and town clerk Kim Pinkowski who were also sworn-in on the 1st.
“I feel confident with this team behind me that we will continue to do the work of the people,” stated Leader. 
 
Patsy is an enrolled Independence party member who ran with the strong endorsements of the Republican and Conservative parties as well as on the Independence line, surviving handily a primary by her opponent. 
 
“Patsy Leader was the natural choice for us to back, with her experience, her loyalty to her town and her general ease at dealing with the business of government and most importantly her care and concern for the residents,” stated Republican Chairman Greg Fingar. 
 
Assemblyman Jake Ashby also attended the ceremony and endorsed Patsy to run early on. 
 
“Patsy is a shining example of a public servant and I am happy to support her,” stated Ashby.

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