Clayton Menser takes office as Crown Point Town Supervisor

CROWN POINT | On a frigid New Year's Day at the Town Office building near the shoreline of Monitor Bay, Clayton Menser, Sr. took his oath of office. The new Crown Point Town Supervisor is ready to bring the place he has called home since 1995 into a new chapter. And in this chapter of the Town of Crown Point, a greater sense of governmental transparency to residents, as well as inclusivity. This past November, Menser defeated his opponent 311 to 230. According to Menser, the average number of voters for that cycle in Crown Point is 275. For the supervisor race, over 500 people showed up to make their preferences known who they'd like to see occupy the seat vacated by Charlie Harrington. And Menser plans to embrace his new challenge and opportunity with vigor. "I want to bring Crown Point into the 21st century," Menser said. "I want to communicate to the whole town what is happening for everybody to know, and I want to get rid of all the backdoor deals. I want people to know how their money is planned to be spent before it is spent, because it is their money." Based on the 2020 census, Crown Point's population is 2,042. It is the sixth-largest town in Essex County, with the most highway mileage and a budget that ranks 13 out of 18. Menser will be bringing with him into office experience, both real-world and professional. He has touched ground in over 50 countries globally, and found that he loved his own homeland of the United States most of all. Menser spent his high school years divided between Ti and Crown Point, attending for two years at each school and graduating from Ticonderoga in 1970. He then went on to spend 25 years in the United States Marine Corps (serving in aviation electronics for 19 years and ground infantry for six) and retired as First Sergeant. He and his wife relocated to Crown Point upon Menser's military departure. Menser then worked at International Paper, started and ran a business in Plattsburgh for six years, worked at two more businesses, and at the age of 54 earned college degrees in Industrial Technology, Business Administration, and International Business Management with a minor in Global Supply Logistics. He also has been a member of the Essex County Republican Committee for nearly 14 years. By "bringing town into the 21st century," Menser is referring strongly to the lack of technology being used in the local government. Currently, town board meeting minutes are recorded manually from the corner. Though he has yet to attend his first town board meeting as supervisor, Menser has proactively purchased an audio digital recorder with microphones. Meetings will from here on out be recorded and will be available for access on the Town of Crown Point's website. "We are working on a way to live-stream town board meetings," he said. " The people in the town should know what is being said and done." Menser also feels the town's website itself is lacking, and he has big ideas and big plans for its improvement. "I'm in the process of working with the county and a private organization to upgrade our website and make it not only accessible but far more user-friendly," Menser explained. The new and improved website (https://townofcrownpointny.gov/) will be a hub people can visit and find out everything there is to know about what is going on in town, including event updates and a comprehensive calendar of community happenings. Supporting economic development will be on the docket, with pages that list types of businesses locally and any business in town having its own tab that will bring potential customers right to their website. As one might expect, Menser will have an open-door policy for residents, encouraging them to feel comfortable coming to see him face to face to voice concerns. "If it's something critical, come see me, and if it's something that will take time to discuss, make an appointment," he urged, adding that the town office at 17 Monitor Bay will now be open Monday through Friday (closed holidays) from 9:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Menser's vision for the town is a community that is active and involved. "When I first came to Crown Point back in 1966, this was a very welcoming town, and I say that as a kid moving into the school system," he expressed. "I was welcomed into town, I didn't have to have a fist fight on the first day of school because I had to prove myself. I want Crown Point- in some ways- to step back in time and become welcoming and friendly. I want to get people taking part in activities and fostering community pride." And to get the ball rolling with encouraging residents to get excited about where they live, Menser has already issued on Facebook (where residents can expect to see him regularly and actively posting going forward) a Christmas Lights Display Contest for the 2026 holiday season. "I want to get it into people's heads now," he said. And with first prize being $1,000, second prize $500, and third prize $250, that may be worth people planning ahead and getting competitively creative in their presentations. Menser added he will be working with the district attorney and the sheriff's department to help to clean up the drug problem in Crown Point. With many neighboring Adirondack towns enjoying renaissances or at the start of economic revitalization journeys, Menser would love to see the same for Crown Point. "Crown Point is a pass through town," he reflected. "I want people to stop, I want them to come to Crown Point as a destination. It will take a lot of work on a lot of people's parts to make that happen." Menser is already eyeing the town's two most frequented tourist attractions, the Monitor Bay Campsite (which brings in $60,000 profit yearly for the Town) and Penfield Museum. "Improving that entire area is a goal of mine," he shared. "By doing some infrastructure upgrades, such as putting in sewer systems for all the sites, we can definitely improve the grounds and make Monitor Bay more valuable and appealing. I want to work with the Lake Champlain Basin Organization to see about cleaning up the bay down here. The green algae is terrible and makes the location non-user-friendly and unenticing, and it will take some money invested there to fix that." Though Penfield Museum receives no funding from the Town, Menser will be investing some of the Town's ROOST money this year. "It is an underutilized facility but it needs work in order to be properly utilized," Menser remarked. "The problem we run into is we can't use taxpayer funds to support them so we have to be creative and come up with other funding sources." And if somehow, someway a restaurant could come into town again, Menser would be all for it. "The closure of Debro's On The Way Cafe left a tremendous void," he admitted. "I would love to see some kind of restaurant come into town, it would be a big investment on somebody's part. I think it will take other things to happen first before someone can justify a restaurant. If we make the campsite more user-friendly with better facilities, you will get a different type of clients who will go to restaurants, and they would much rather go to one locally than have to drive." Menser encourages and welcomes all community members to attend town board meetings (held on the second Thursday of each month at 6:00 p.m. in the Town Offices beginning Jan. 8) and become engaged in their hometown. "The people of the Town work together, and when I say that I mean the highway department, the water and sewer, the town office, these people communicate every day all day long as to what is happening and what is going right and what is going wrong," the supervisor offered. "They work together to keep things running. The town board members all work with everybody, that group all talks to each other extremely well. I want to get them to do the same thing with the rest of the community."

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Clayton Menser takes office as Crown Point Town Supervisor

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