VALATIE – There are two seats on the village board this March 20 that are open and the two people running for them are incumbents. Polls will be open from noon to 9 p.m. at the village hall on Main Street.

Jennifer Furey was elected to the board two years ago on the Valatie Experience Party line and as an independent line. Ms. Furey owns the Hair Zone on Main Street in the village, which she opened six years this April.

On the board she has served on the negotiation committee that meets with the unions representing village employees, sat on the committee working with the town and the school district to relocate municipal offices to the vacant Martin H. Glynn School in the village and she was the liaison to VERA, a business and community development group that hosts Winter Walk and other village events.

She says having a business on Main Street has given her a view of growth in the village. “I want to keep seeing that rising up,” she said of the business district. She is also looking forward to the major sewer upgrades the board approved and new senior housing planned for Route 203. “It’s been great,” she said of being on the board.

When Trustee Paul Raihofer died suddenly last year, Mayor Gary Strevell appointed Amy Freinberg-Trufas to seat in November. Ms. Freinberg-Trufas plans to run for a full two-year term on the board.

She served for three years as trustee in the past, including one year as deputy mayor. Prior to being trustee, she served for over a year on the Valatie Planning Board.  She is currently on the Audit Committee and the Youth Committee.

“I am interested in keeping taxes down and see it as my responsibility as trustee to figure out ways to do more with less,” she said in an email. She is interested in growing businesses on Main Street through work with VERA and Valatie Community Theatre. She also said in her email she is concerned about adding more green public spaces, parks and trees to the village. “The more inviting we make our village, the more people will enjoy it,” she wrote.