Thirty-four-year Caroline resident and former Town Councilmember Irene Weiser has recently announced her intentions to seek election in the Tompkins County Legislature, representing Danby and Caroline in the new District 13.
Current Legislator Dan Klein will not be running for reelection in 2025, so it is yet unclear whether Weiser’s campaign will face opposition. The primaries this year will be on June 24, and the general election will be on November 4.
Since Weiser first ran for office as a Democrat in 2012, environmental issues have been one of her top priorities. Having ousted a pro-fracking incumbent, she was decisive in banning fracking in the Town of Caroline. As a member of the watershed committee, she helped develop one of the first Stormwater Management Plans and advocated for watershed protections in zoning law.
For the past fifteen years, Weiser has been the coordinator of Fossil Free Tompkins, and for the past three years has served on the Tompkins County Climate and Sustainable Energy Advisory Board and Senator Lea Webb’s environmental issues committee. Weiser’s environmental priorities for the Tompkins County Legislature include pushing NYSEG to provide more reliable, affordable, and clean energy and preparing for climate-change-related extreme weather events.
As a Town Councilmember from 2012 to 2020, Weiser led efforts to improve the Town’s communication with residents and expand access to high-speed broadband internet to over four hundred rural households. As the Chair of the Tompkins County Council of Governments, she led a committee to investigate the shortage of emergency medical services in the county’s rural areas and propose potential solutions.
Intent to meet the needs of rural residents, Weiser plans to use her position in the Tompkins County Legislature to ensure all County residents have access to adequate cellular, broadband, and emergency medical services.
In addition to environmental and rural issues, Weiser is passionate about victim services. For ten years, Weiser was the director of a national grassroots organization that worked to support women and children who experienced violence. For fifteen years, she was a volunteer mediator with the Community Dispute Resolution Center.
More recently, she’s been involved in seeking justice for Amanda David, a Black farmer in Caroline experiencing ongoing racist attacks from her neighbor. About thirty years ago, Weiser successfully pushed for the creation of a governmental victim services position, which served the County for about fifteen years. “That needs to happen again,” Weiser insists.
From emergency medical services and internet access in rural areas to climate emergency preparedness and victim services, Weiser considers herself a strong advocate for public safety. “It’s our job to make the world a better place for [the next generation],” she explained, tearing up.
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