Roger Hannigan Gilson reports for the Times Union that on March 21, Coxsackie village voters will choose between incumbent Republican Mark Evans and Democrat Veronica Foley for mayor. Foley became involved in village politics because of the development of the Newbury boutique hotel. The hotel is attached to an events center on the village waterfront, and broke village zoning rules and undermined permissions granted by the village Planning Board, creating more opposition in Coxsackie. The Newbury got a stop-work order by the village, but then several residents, including Foley, found it had been built with an extra floor, one of several unapproved variations to the plan. Foley started a newsletter about the building project, and, eventually, other village government news. If she wins the election Foley says she will continue the newsletter, "but on a wider scale." Evans is up for his eighth term as village mayor. He grew up in Coxsackie and is the vice president of State Telephone Company, founded by his great-grandfather. Evans is also a former paramedic, and president of Greene County Paramedics. Evans crows about an upgrade of the village's water system and a $3 million state grant to install a water tank to back up the system in case of water main breaks under his watch. And recently Coxsackie won a $4.5 million New York Forward grant that Evans wants to use to address the local affordable housing crisis. Evans said, "I want to try and do everything I can to ensure that my kids, who both graduated the high school (here and) work in the area, will have a place that they will always be able to afford in Coxsackie." But Foley believes winning the grant works against because of his administration's lack of transparency. She said that she is concerned that picking the final project list would involve "opaqueness" from the village, and she pledged open communication and transparency as mayor. Read more about this story in the Times Union.