The resignation letter specified an effective date of Aug. 31, 2025.
“... This is a very difficult decision and has not been an easy one and comes after careful consideration for my family, my personal health and my professional work priorities,” Nickerson wrote in the letter. “Due to recent developments, I believe it is in the best interest for me and my family to step away from this current role as mayor to focus on the areas of family integrity and to pursue new future work opportunities.”
Nickerson had sent the letter to Bemis’ personal email address using his own personal email account. He asked that Bemis forward the letter to “everyone except Sands and Joy.”
Records show Bemis then used her village email address to forward the resignation letter to council members Nicole Adkins, Timothy Back, Melissa Sexton and Charles Cooper, along with Village Manager Bill Draugelis.
Councilmen Christopher Sands and Gale Joy were not included in the email.
Soon after submitting the letter, Nickerson had a change of heart and rescinded his planned resignation.
“Over the past few days, I have reflected deeply on this decision. In my heart, I know that I cannot, in good conscience, walk away from the work we have started together for the people of the village of New Lebanon,” Nickerson wrote in a rescission letter to Draugelis. “Our village is at an important juncture and there are still so many goals we’ve set — projects to finish, challenges to face and opportunities to embrace — that I feel a strong duty to see through."
Nickerson did not immediately respond this week to questions about what fueled his decision to resign, the subsequent rescission, nor the reasons for him excluding two council members from the initial resignation announcement.
Nickerson has not appeared for a village council meeting since the June 3 session. That’s a total of five missed meetings.
Nickerson said via email last week his absences were due to “family personal reasons.”
Council has a 75% meeting attendance requirement, one that Nickerson is now toeing the line with. It was stated by council during the Aug. 5 meeting that the mayor can miss only one more meeting before crossing that threshold.
Nickerson took office in January 2024, along with several new council members, after running in the November 2023 election on a platform to tackle “wasteful and unnecessary spending.”
He is now a co-defendant in multiple court battles, along with other village leaders, stemming from the 2024 firings of former police chief Curtis Hensley and former village manager Glena Madden.
Hensley and Madden were among eight village employees who were fired unexpectedly in early 2024, soon after Nickerson took office.
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