LEN CARSON, R-DISTRICT 13

Experience In EMS, Business

Will Guide County Legislator

By JIM KEVLIN – for www.AllOTSEGO.com

ONEONTA – Should it be any surprise that “the possibility of public service” caused Len Carson to run for the Otsego County Board of Representatives in District 13, representing Ward 5 (outer Chestnut Street) and the city’s fabled Sixth Ward?

As a teenager, he became an Eagle Scout.   Even before graduating from Laurens Central School in 1983, he was a volunteer firefighter in his hometown.  Soon, he joined the Air Force, training at Elgin AFB in Florida.

On his return, he was soon a call fireman for the Oneonta Fire Department.  And he was soon back in the service, joining the New York State National Guard and partaking of the its firefighter training.  At home, he joined the OFD fulltime, serving a quarter-century before retiring earlier this year.

Even while rising to captain in the department, he expanded his public involvement, accepting an appointment to the Oneonta Municipal Airport Committee, continuing on the task force appointed to rethink the facility and, finally, becoming one of four commissioners who collaborated with the Oneonta Job Corps to complete in the past month the first renovation of the terminal since the 1960s.

“When I was appointed, City Council did not think the airport was an asset,” he said in a recent interview.  That’s changed, Carson said.  Today, there’s a general understanding that the airport gives Oneonta – and, by extension, the county – a competitive advantage as it looks to future economic development.

Oneonta has the railroad, recently acquired by the bullish Norfolk Southern.  It has Interstate 88, putting it on the transportation route between New England and the rest of the country.  And it has an airport, where a feasibility study is looking into what businesses might be attracted by a convenient air link to the property north of the city.

“How many other cities in New York State are that fortunate?” he asked.

Carson has also been a longtime member of the Oneonta Veterans’ Club.  While not a combat veteran himself, he is a veteran of many life-and-death situations while rising up the OFD emergency services ranks.  As he got to know combat veterans at the post, they opened up to him, realizing he understood.  He has served as commander for the past several years, and continues to as he heads into a career in elective office.

Then came a turn in the road.  After serving in the public sphere, he started his own business, DC Marketing, which so far has erected two sizeable electronic billboards along Interstate 88 through the city, at the Lettis Highway exit and in front of the Hampton Inn.

Even that decision was guided by a public purpose:  To give local businesses, small business in particular, a cost-effective way to reach customers.

Through this, he and wife Dellene have raised a merged family of three sons.  Joshua, an armed security guard in Minneapolis looking toward a law-enforcement career, and Daniel, a personal trainer in New York City, are both 27, and have been friends since playing in Little League together.  James is 23, a trained mechanic in a Honda dealership looking to apply a double-major in administration and sports management to a career.

With all this, should it be any surprise that, when he decided to run for elective office, he was approach to run both for City Council and the county Board of Representatives?

A Republican entering a 10-4 Republican majority on the county board – he is succeeding county Rep. Linda Rowinski, D-Oneonta, who chose not to run again – he is looking forward to the opportunity to apply what he knows to county government.

Knowing the issues, the people involved countywide and “the lingo,” he hopes to serve on the board’s Public Safety & Legals Affairs Committee.  He also anticipates his growing experience in business will be helpful in the county board’s often challenging  annual budgeting deliberations.

He’s also intrigued by the continuing possibilities of the annual CFA competition, Governor Cuomo’s method for distributing a billion dollars annually to 10 Regional Economic Development Councils statewide.  He’s energized by the county’s Mohawk Valley REDC receiving a record $100.3 million this year, but recognizes the county’s share – a record $3.3 million this year – is just a small fraction of the total.

“The county’s still trying to find its way,” he said, although he’s intrigued by the possibility of a year-‘round water park somewhere on Route 28 as a way of expanding the tourism industry into the shoulder seasons and beyond.

As he moves forward, he’s bringing two lessons from his days on the OFD.

One, “it’s very rewarding when you’re helping people.”  Just the other day, he was approached by a mother, expressing thanks for saving her daughter’s life years ago when the girl had run through a plate glass door.

Two, “respect others.  That’s what I always tried to teach my young crews:  There are a lot of different people out there.”