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.\u00a0 He’s that kind of guy.\u00a0 What I didn’t know was that he would pretty much let it all hang out.<\/p>\n
“I\u2019m at a point in my life in my late 50s where I don\u2019t have to do a lot of butt-kissing,” he laughed, with an expression that I can only describe as mischievous.\u00a0 “I just don\u2019t have to.”<\/p>\n
Rabideau is a veteran politician, of course.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 He ran a statewide campaign for Lt. Governor in 1998.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
State Senator Betty Little?\u00a0 “As far as a lot of communication with Betty, there’s hardly any.\u00a0 We just don’t seem to be in sync,” he says.<\/p>\n
Of Assemblywomen Janet Duprey and Teresa Sayward, whose districts include roughly equal chunks of Saranac Lake, he says, “They have very little clout.\u00a0 Not a heck of a lot going on, I don’t care what anybody says.”<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
“[The village is] setting the pace for economic development and for community identity in Saranac Lake.\u00a0 It\u2019 s kind of too bad that the town of Harrietstown is called the town of Harrietstown.\u00a0 It should be called the town of Saranac Lake, it really should.”<\/p>\n