Natasha Vaughn-Holdridge is reporting for Columbia-Greene Media Michael Abrams is the new mayor of the village of Kinderhook, according to the unofficial results of the March 15 election. Abrams, 42, ran on the Old Kinderhook party line. He prevailed in the three-way contest, receiving 322 votes, to beat Barry Knights, 57, on the Kinderhook Ole Timers line with 28 votes, and Quinn Murphy, 19, on the Kinderhook People’s party line, with 118 votes. “I appreciate everybody’s support,” Abrams said. “We’re going to try to hit the ground running and do the best we can to improve everyone’s quality of life.” He will take the oath of office in the coming weeks, succeeding Mayor Dale Leiser. Abrams is currently serving as a member of the village board, having been elected in 2020. He grew up in Brunswick, Rensselaer County and moved to Kinderhook in 2015. “There’s a number of things I think we want to get at right away,” Abrams said. “Some of those things are just going to be nuts and bolts how are we going to operate as a village board, how many meetings are we going to have, internal things on how we plan on communicating with one another and everything like that. I want to make sure we’re all aligned moving forward.” His priorities for the village include making sure there is clean water, ensuring its fire-rescue is responsive and that essential services continue to operate as they should, Abrams said. “Overall, I really want to try to keep Kinderhook safe, family-oriented and culturally significant,” he said before the election. In total 478 residents voted in Kinderhook on Tuesday — 412 in person at the polls and 66 by absentee ballot. Read more at HudsonValley360 [dot] com.