The coming weeks will see some big changes around here, namely the entire look of this newspaper. We’re entering the home-stretch of a redesign of the print edition undertaken to match the look and feel of the new website. We’ll be adding some new features to the paper as well. One of them will be a regular short-form interview with community members, which we’ll run every other week. How about we get it started with yours truly?

Where are you from?

Waterloo, New York, a little town in the middle of the Finger Lakes. It’s a little smaller than Saugerties. It’s also the birthplace of Memorial Day.

What brought you here?

I moved to Ulster County in 2001 to attend SUNY New Paltz, where I studied English and anthropology. I graduated and went to work for Ulster Publishing as a reporter, taking over as editor of Saugerties Times in 2007.

What are your thoughts on politics?

I’m not registered with any party. I don’t think ideology has much of a role on the local level. Here, it’s more about coming up with creative ways to manage the budget and improve the community. Smart, focused and well-intentioned people of any political persuasion tend to make the same good moves; egotistical oafs of any stripe the same bad ones. On the national scene, I think the biggest issue is long-term deficits brought on by entitlement spending as new and fantastically expensive new drugs and treatments come along to keep people living for decades after they stop working. I haven’t really studied U.S. Rep. Paul Ryan’s plan, or Obama’s, or Paul Krugman’s, though the Bowles-Simpson Plan seemed like a good compromise. The bigger problem is: do we have the political will to do this stuff? I doubt it, considering a disagreement over a tiny sliver of money for Planned Parenthood almost shut down the government a few weeks ago.

How can you cover Saugerties if you don’t live here?

That one stings. Hey, I do my best. I think the fact that I don’t live my personal life here helps prevent the emergence of favorites and enemies in these pages. We really don’t have any axes to grind! (That said, if you know of a good place for under $700 a month with utilities included let me know. I don’t have any pets and I’m very clean.)

What natural talent would you most like to be gifted with?

Singing voice.

List your favorites: color, Beatle and bird?

Green, John, catbird.

What do you appreciate most in your friends?

Understanding, sense of humor, kindness.

If not yourself, who would you be?

Someone vaguely dissatisfied with my surroundings, yet unable to articulate how I could improve them.

For what fault do you have the most toleration?

Any fault that derives from an abundance of concern for another’s well-being.