Preview: Saranac Lake’s Mayor Rabideau is having fun, naming names

When I sat down a couple of weeks ago to talk with Saranac Lake’s Mayor Clyde Rabideau, I knew it would be a colorful, freewheeling conversation.  He’s that kind of guy.  What I didn’t know was that he would pretty much let it all hang out.

“I’m at a point in my life in my late 50s where I don’t have to do a lot of butt-kissing,” he laughed, with an expression that I can only describe as mischievous.  “I just don’t have to.”

Rabideau is a veteran politician, of course.  Now in his late fifties, he was one of Plattsburgh’s defining mayors, the guy who held the reins with the Air Force base closed down.  He ran a statewide campaign for Lt. Governor in 1998.

Since March of last year, he has served as the fierce, outspoken mayor of the Adirondacks’ biggest community and in the profile that will air Monday morning during the 8 O’clock Hour he is astonishingly candid.

He admits to having crossed swords with a lot of people during his first sixteen months in office and he’s happy to name names.

State Senator Betty Little?  “As far as a lot of communication with Betty, there’s hardly any.  We just don’t seem to be in sync,” he says.

Of Assemblywomen Janet Duprey and Teresa Sayward, whose districts include roughly equal chunks of Saranac Lake, he says, “They have very little clout.  Not a heck of a lot going on, I don’t care what anybody says.”

When asked about relations with the town of Harrietstown, which includes a big chunk of Saranac Lake village, Rabideau suggests that the town is just sort of in the way.

“[The village is] setting the pace for economic development and for community identity in Saranac Lake.  It’ s kind of too bad that the town of Harrietstown is called the town of Harrietstown.  It should be called the town of Saranac Lake, it really should.”

This is nothing new really.  The Plattsburgh Press Republican recalled Rabideau’s tenure in their city this way:  “He was tenaciously competitive — in Plattsburgh, he often butted heads with adversaries, and sometimes even friends.”

But they also praised him as a man full of ideas and energy.  And he’s certainly one of the big personalities who have adopted Saranac Lake and given the village a sense of dynamism out of all proportion to its tiny size.

Check out the profile Monday morning and chime in with your two cents worth below.  Is Clyde the kind of two-fisted guy who gets stuff done?

Or could his sort of politics make it harder for the North Country to develop a bigger, regional identity, one that transcends village borders?