Ulysses voters reelect Olson and new town board, county legislature leaders

The town of Ulysses will see a handful of new elected leaders next year after three new Democrats were voted into office last week, while Katelin Olson will serve a second four-year term as town supervisor.  

Olson, a Democrat who has served in the role since 2022, beat independent candidate Katy Walker, who began running under her “Ulysses United” party in September. As the town’s only contested race this year, the two candidates squared off in an hourlong forum last month, attended by more than 80 people, to discuss their visions for the community.

Olson received just under 1,000 votes, while Walker received about 440 votes, giving Olson nearly 70% of the total vote share, according to unofficial election results from the Tompkins County Board of Elections.  

Tom Knipe and Steve Manley were elected to fill two town board seats currently occupied by outgoing council members Rich Goldman and Mary Bouchard. Goldman and Bouchard were first elected to the town board in 2013 and 2020, respectively.  

On the county level, entrepreneur Rachel Ostlund, who ran unopposed, was elected to represent the town of Ulysses and part of the town of Enfield in the new District 16 on the Tompkins County Legislature. Anne Koreman, who was one of several county legislators who chose not to run for reelection this year, has served on the county legislature since 2018.    

Tompkins Weekly spoke with Olson, Ostlund, Knipe and Manley about their goals and visions for Ulysses during their terms starting in January. 

Katelin Olson, Town Supervisor

Olson said that she’s grateful to have been elected for a second term and thanked Walker for her commitment to the community in running for office.

“I think that running for office is absolutely essential for our democracy and also something that most people will never do,” Olson said. “I’m really appreciative of everybody who’s willing to go through that very public process of dealing with lots of opinions and issues. I got to know the community even better as a result of this campaign season, and for that, I’m actually very deeply grateful.” 

Olson said that her top priorities for her second term are finishing major town projects, including adopting the 2025-2045 Ulysses Comprehensive Plan. The town’s Comprehensive Plan Steering Committee (CPSC) has been working since early 2023 to update the plan, last adopted in 2009, which will be used to guide the community’s goals and vision over the next two decades.

Once the CPSC votes to recommend the plan, it will go to the town board for final approval. After initially aiming to approve the plan by the end of the year, the CPSC voted at its Nov. 5 meeting to advance the document to the town board by the end of March 2026. 

The committee hired MRB, a municipal planning company, as a consultant to help develop the plan last year, a process Olson said took longer than anticipated. The total budgeted cost of developing the plan between 2023 and 2025 was nearly $120,000, with just over $55,000 funded through a state Climate Smart Communities grant, according to Olson, who noted that extending the time to finish the project will increase its cost.       

Another major goal for Olson’s second term is to finalize the design of the town’s first public park, which was made possible with a 15-acre land donation on Cold Springs Road earlier this year.

A public information session about potential designs based on a community survey, which closed last week, is scheduled from 5:30 to 7 p.m. on Wednesday, Nov. 12 at Ulysses Town Hall. 

Olson also hopes to help implement a master plan for the newly opened 90-acre state park at the former Boy Scout Camp Barton property. This would include seeking more state funding for infrastructure upgrades, such as replacing the park’s water system to meet state standards.

Olson also expressed gratitude for her outgoing town board colleagues, Goldman and Bouchard.  

“They both have been incredibly diligent and thoughtful in their service to the town, and I enjoyed working with them immensely,” she said. “The town is in much better financial shape as a result of their service.”

Rachel Ostlund, Tompkins County Legislator for District 16

Ostlund, a former small business owner who has lived in the hamlet of Jacksonville for the last eight years, said that she is looking forward to improving residents’ basic needs in the county. 

She said that a lack of affordable housing, community spaces, accessible transportation and child care all make it harder for people to live in the district. 

Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits are in flux for tens of millions of Americans as the federal government shutdown continues, which Ostlund said has exacerbated the already prevalent issue of food insecurity in the county. Approximately 7,200 county residents rely on SNAP benefits, according to the Department of Social Services, and about 35% of Enfield residents rely on the town’s food pantry.

“None of these issues exist in isolation,” Ostlund said. “Hunger is a manmade, manufactured crisis that as a society we’re inflicting upon people.” 

Ostlund, who was endorsed by the Working Families Party, also said that she supports efforts to promote paying employees a living wage across the county. 

The living wage for a county resident working full time is $51,000 a year, or $24.82 an hour, according to a study released in March by Cornell’s School of Industrial and Labor Relations. Nearly half of all workers in the county earn less than the newly calculated living wage, with Black residents disproportionately living under this threshold, according to the study. The state minimum wage is currently $15.50. 

“I think people should be able to live in the community where they work,” Ostlund said, noting that implementing a living wage without addressing other affordability issues, such as creating low-income housing, is short-sighted. “You don’t just pull out one piece and implement a living wage tomorrow, because that wouldn’t serve anyone.”

The newly elected legislator added that expanding emergency medical services (EMS) is a major priority of hers. There are several municipally funded ambulance companies in the county, as well as the private Bangs Ambulance Company in Ithaca, a network that Ostlund said is inadequate for “the growing needs of the community at large.”    

She suggested that the legislature evaluate current EMS services in the county and provide a county-funded service that “bolsters and supports the current system,” such as by expanding the county’s Rapid Medical Response Program.

Tom Knipe and Steve Manley, Town Board members

Knipe and Manley ran for the town board to get more involved in the community and to address issues relating to sustainability and keeping families in Ulysses.

“I decided to run because I love this community,” Knipe said. “I love the opportunity to contribute to good local government, which is something that’s been a focus of my career.” 

Knipe, who moved to the town in 2023 with his wife and young children, has spent the last 14 years working in government to tackle issues related to transportation and tourism. Since September, he’s served as the director of the Ithaca-Tompkins County Transportation Council, and he was previously the city of Ithaca’s deputy director for economic development. 

He said that a major issue for town residents is housing affordability and that more housing should be built in areas of the town with access to transit services and utilities such as water and sewer. Knipe also said that the town should do more to incentivize the development of diverse housing options, which is a top goal in the current draft of the town’s 2025-2045 comprehensive plan.     

“We value our neighborhoods and, at the same time, we also know that we have an affordability crisis in our community,” he said. “We have to really think strategically and proactively about how we can accept more housing of all types into the community, and really use the comprehensive plan and zoning updates to decide what’s most appropriate for us.”

Manley, who’s lived in Ulysses with his family since 2016, is a former executive director of the Ithaca Public Education Initiative and now works as a cubmaster and a middle school humanities teacher at New Roots Charter School in Ithaca.       

Manley said that one of his priorities is to expand youth recreational opportunities in the town. He said that a significant portion of the town’s students live within the Ithaca City School District and sometimes feel isolated from students in the Trumansburg Central School District. Manley added that he wants to expand the capacity of the town’s summer camp program, which he said became fully booked within hours this summer. 

“It’s a bit of a race to sign up for the program,” he said. “It’s like buying tickets for a concert.”   

Knipe and Manley also pledged to promote transparency in town hall decisions and to protect “community treasures,” like the Smith Woods land donation, which the town board unanimously voted to accept last month. 

“I’m really excited about this opportunity, and I want to be very accessible to people,” Manley said. “I anticipate people will want to move here for a piece of our arable land, whether large or small, for personal use or large-scale commerce, so we have to think about how to balance preserving individual needs and our town’s economy and agricultural spaces.”