FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: MONDAY, OCTOBER 21, 2019

STATEMENT FROM TOWN OF LERAY OFFICIALS

REGARDING CLAIMS MADE BY ALLISON CROSSMAN

For the last five months, we have listened to City of Watertown mayoral candidate Allison
Crossman refer to the Town of LeRay as “corrupt.” We are releasing this statement to clear the
name of the Town, correct the record and demonstrate that these allegations could not be
further from the truth.

Allison Crossman and her husband purchased 26369 NYS Rte. 283 in 2017. They had intended
to establish an auto repair shop in that location. In order to do so, they needed to be
grandfathered into the Town’s zoning rules. To be grandfathered in, they needed to demonstrate
the previous business—Auto Clinic of Northern New York—had been operational within the past
year.

In 2017, the Crossmans produced documentation that pointed to the previous repair shop being
operational during the summer of 2016—a year before they purchased the site. Among the
submissions provided by the Crossmans was a letter from the previous owner, Sheila Sweet.
According to Jefferson County records, Ms. Sweet’s business closed in 2013. In addition, the
real estate agent affiliated with the property, as well as neighbors, maintained the auto repair
shop had been vacant for years.

Shortly after the Crossmans submitted the aforementioned letter to the Town’s Zoning Board of
Appeals, Ms. Sweet alleged that her signature was placed on a letter she did not write. In
notarized correspondence to the Crossmans, she stated: “you should be ashamed of yourselves
for changing the wording in my letter,” and threatened legal action “for the fraud you committed.”

It is not the responsibility of the Town Board to determine the legitimacy of documents when
their validity is questioned. Given this fact, we turned the matter over to the New York State
Police to determine whether the Crossmans were utilizing false information to obtain a zoning
permit. We did not push for the arrest of Allison Crossman as she has claims—we simply asked
law enforcement to make a determination about the validity of the documents in question.

The New York State Police investigated the matter, reviewed evidence and interviewed
witnesses. In May of 2018, they independently decided to arrest and charge Allison Crossman
with second-degree possession of a forged instrument, a felony, and second-degree offering a
false instrument for filing, a misdemeanor. In addition to these charges, Allison Crossman was
sued civilly by the Town for continuing to work on the NYS Rte. 283 property, despite repeated
instruction from the Town not to proceed until the zoning issue was resolved.

We have sat back and listened as Mrs. Crossman defamed our Town and the public servants
who work every day to make it better by calling them “corrupt.” Furthermore, in a public
Facebook post shared Sunday on her “Allison for Mayor” Facebook page, she
states that she would “discourage anyone from considering doing business in the Town of
LeRay.”

The Town of LeRay has a population of just over 20,000 residents—roughly the same size of
the City of Watertown, which she seeks to represent—and is home to Fort Drum, as well as the
brave men and women of the 10th Mountain Division. It is disappointing to hear that a candidate
for mayor who says they are “pro-business” would discourage working with a neighboring
municipality in an effort to grow our region as a whole, and improve it for those who live here.

Enough is enough. These are the facts, and we encourage the media will do its due diligence
and report our side of the story in an effort to better inform the voters before Election Day.

Signed,

Ronald C. Taylor, Town of LeRay Supervisor

Michael J. Gracey, Town of LeRay Councilman
Samuel Biondolillo, Town of LeRay Councilman
Jennifer Dindl-Bossuot, Former Town of LeRay Councilwoman

###