Gary Antonucci, Republican candidate for mayor, at Gloversville’s Four Corners on Nov. 11, 2024.

Gary Antonucci, left, is Republican candidate for mayor of Gloversville. Matt Capano, right, is running under the independent Honest Party line.

Gloversville mayoral candidate Matt Capano on Feb. 24, 2025.

Matt Capano, right, is running under the independent Honest Party line.

Gary Antonucci and Matt Capano largely agree on the critical issues facing Gloversville: re-development and tidying up less-than-tidy properties.

The two mayoral candidates on the ballot in Nov. 4’s general election for the four-year seat even say they like outgoing Mayor Vincent DeSantis’ accomplishments and want to continue the progress. Their real difference is in their approaches.

“I touched every corner of the city,” said Antonucci, the Republican nominee and 10-year member of the city’s water board. “The blight is awful.”

“I ask people where they’re coming from and they say they’re afraid to come downtown,” said Capano, who lost the GOP nomination to Antonucci but continued to the general election under the independent Honest Party line.

Capano suggests not only increasing enforcement of code violations, but increasing fines attached to them. “Maybe if it’s a $20 fine, maybe it should be $100,” he said, and perhaps increase the fine for subsequent violations. “We have to get tough with it.”

Antonucci suggests focusing on specific areas and specific people — absentee landlords. “I want to make sure that [Route] 29A, when you come into the city, is spotless,” he said. “It’s not going to take a lot of money.”

He also wants to make sure rental property owners are properly registered, and pursued for code violations.

Both candidates want to attract more businesses to the community, much of their plans tied to opening restaurants and leisure facilities near the Glove Theatre.

“Main Street should be all shops to shop and walk,” Capano said, and he hopes to streamline the permitting process to encourage development.

Antonucci echoes the goal, but adds working with developers to restore properties, such as the Zimmer Building, which collapsed under snow last spring.

“It won’t be turned into parks, but find a Realtor to develop something on that,” Antonucci said. “You have to find the right developer.”

Both candidates, long-time water board members, say the city’s reservoirs and water capacity is an asset to market. A plan to build a water-bottling plant in Perth would draw about 1.5 million gallons a day from the system, doubling the city’s use. But the six reservoirs can supply 10 million gallons a day, Capano said.

“Gloversville has an abundance of water; we call it liquid gold,” Capano said. He’s been on the water board since 2000.

Antonucci added that other municipalities seek to extend the city’s water lines to their communities.

But that’s also something to watch, Antonucci said. The city’s water mains were installed nearly 90 years ago, in the 1930s. They’re about at the end of their expected usefulness, and the city will need to consider replacing them before they collapse, as happened last year in Watertown.

“I know a lot about infrastructure,” he said.

Capano talks about reducing crime, but state data show that crime in Gloversville dropped 64% between 2015 and 2024, to 251 total index crimes from 706.

However, he adds that other nuisances can give the impression the city isn’t safe. “I’d like it to be where people can enjoy walking downtown without people asking for money or drinking beer or smoking dope.”

He would consider efforts to understand and address homelessness, and might push for a law to restrict smoking in downtown areas.

DeSantis has said his successor, whoever that may be, should focus on a couple of priorities:

Antonucci said residential areas are a priority. “People think because they don’t live........

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