The date is burned in memory: Nov. 15, 2005. And the time: 2:03 a.m.

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The date is burned in memory:  Nov. 15, 2005.
And the time: 2:03 a.m.

Bill Elsey and his wife Violetta were asleep upstairs in their Bartlett Road home when one of their cats – the one that would survive – awoke them.
“When I sat up in bed, I couldn’t see anything, the smoke was so thick,” the new Town of Springfield supervisor recalled recently on a one of those cold, sunny and clear, very clear, winter days.
The Elseys had only been in town for a few years and didn’t know that many people.  Nonetheless, even before the fire was out – the house was destroyed – people began driving up.
“Clothes, food, they brought everything,” said Bill.  “People we’d never met before.”
That night changed Elsey, who until then had been something of a wanderer, raised in Chicago, living and working in Florida and California.  He’d found a home.
Soon, he was a member of the fire department.  A year later, he was chief.  In 2007, he was elected to the Springfield Town Board.
On Election Day in November, another chapter opened for the proprietor of Leather Stalking Books:  He was elected supervisor, narrowly defeating Tom Armstrong, who had held sway for a quarter-century.
Elsey assumed the town’s helm during a calm in a particularly unusual stormy period in this serene, scenic town.
First, a group of downstate businessmen/motorcycle enthusiasts had sought to build a track near the Warren town line.  Then, Chicago-area investors began exploring a sizeable youth baseball park – complete with a mini Wrigley Field and Fenway Park – near the Richfield town line.
Last, and the opposite of least, Madison Square Garden Entertainment proposed a three-day, 75,000 fan annual music festival at the East Springfield end of the 1,200-person town.
“I just felt it was time for us to change in the town,” said Elsey, “and start planning for the future.  I just didn’t see that going on.”
The new supervisor was sworn in Jan. 4, and by month’s end found himself in an optimum situation.
Town Board member Dan Rosen and Elsey had been allies, but another like-minded individual, Fred Culbert, was elected in November.  Since Elsey’s elevation created a vacancy, he had a say in his successor, who ended up as Bill Freeland, who operates an organic grain and cattle farm on Hoyer Road. 
The fifth board member is Richard Rathbun, whose Rathbun Road farm dates back to the town’s founding.  On the split Armstrong board, Rathbun was the swing vote with the reputation of someone who could be convinced by the facts. 

If, for a freshman supervisor, Elsey is in a pretty good position to get things done, and he’s not wasting any time:
• Highway Superintendent Jeff Miles and Rathbun are exploring what regulations the town might adopt to protect its roads from heavy-truck traffic that would occur if natural-gas drilling happens.
• Town Clerk Jeannette Armstrong, and Planning Board members Rosemary Harrison and Maureen Culbert are identifying which high priorities in the recently completed comprehensive plan to pursue first.
• Elsey is looking into how to speed broad-band Internet access to the town.  “If we have it, people are more likely to start their own businesses here.”
• Rosen and Planning Board chair Dave Staley will be recommending how site-plan review must be changed to reflect the comprehensive plan.
• $50,000 in NYSERDA and other funding is being sought to make the Springfield Community Center energy efficient.  It still has single-pane windows, but Elsey’s discovered just adding energy-efficient light fixtures and a furnace could save significant money.
• Finally, he’s putting together a committee of citizens to identify “low-impact companies” that might want to relocate here:  back offices for an insurance company, perhaps, or an assisted-living facility, much lacking in these parts.  “Springfield is pretty easily accessible,” Elsey noted.

The new supervisor asked that this article not dwell on his personal story, but some of it’s too good to let slide.
Both raised in Chicago, Bill and Vi met at the University of Illinois, Chicago campus; both are Chicago Cubs fans.  He was a wildlife biologist for a while.  He spent 20 years in Mountainview, Calif., running his own medical-transcription business.  Then the couple moved to Florida for 3-4 years.
Summers were so hot there, they would travel north to escape the heat, and eventually visited the Baseball Hall of Fame.  They liked the area.  The couple had been buying and selling books, and figured they could do that anywhere, and so bought a century-old home on Bartlett Road (since the fire, replaced with a ranch.)
The Elseys’ Leather Stalking Books specializes in mysteries.  Conan Doyle, Hammett and Chandler are the gold standard, but Bill’s had some luck with lesser lights.
For example, he discovered a first edition of Cormac McCarthy’s first book, “The Orchard Keeper,” and bought it for 63 cents.  He’d rather not say what he got for it.