Melanie Lekocevic is reporting for Columbia-Greene Media Robert Beaury and David Helsley will face off on November 2 in the Germantown town supervisor election. Incumbent Beaury, 62, has lived in Columbia County since 1994. He is a retired educator and is running on both the Democratic and Conservative lines. Beaury previously served as town justice from 2007 until 2017. He says many of the greatest issues currently facing Germantown are environmental. "We are addressing climate change currently and have a committee working on energy efficiency and green energy. We have another committee addressing the waterfront and they are working on a master plan... Next year we will update our zoning law. Affordable housing will be prioritized. Economic development is also a focus of our local government," he said. Beaury believes he should be re-elected for a variety of reasons, such as his success at reducing costs and improving efficiencies across the board. The town also opened a satellite office for the Columbia County Sheriff’s Office, thereby increasing a police presence in Germantown while reducing the overall costs of police protection. Helsley, 50, has lived in the county for his entire life. He is employed as a project manager for Taconic Biosciences, Inc. He is an unaffiliated voter, but his name will appear on the Republican line. Helsley said one of the largest issue in Germantown "...is a decline in cooperation and collaboration. Failure to maintain inter-municipal agreements with neighboring towns and the Columbia County highway departments have resulted in decreased service to the town." He said if elected, one of his first objectives would be to restore agreements between Germantown and various agencies. "I believe my 20-plus years of management experience would make me a good supervisor. I am passionate about Germantown as I have lived here my entire life and I love the diversity of the community. I have a strong work ethic that I will use to reach out to both long-time and newly settled residents to get as many people involved in order to promote cooperation. ...." Read the full story at HudsonValley360 [dot] com.