DEFERIET — A mayor whose resignation has been called for at a public meeting is being challenged by a 25-year-old village resident.

Robert J. Foster, who called for Mrs. Dingman to resign at the village Board of Trustees' July meeting, is looking to oust Mayor Jane W. Dingman on Nov. 4. He said he wants to stand up for Deferiet residents because he thinks Mrs. Dingman makes decisions unilaterally.

"I'm running for mayor because I want to give the people of Deferiet back the power they deserve. I want to give the trustees back the power they deserve. They took an oath to serve the people and they can't even exercise that," he said. "Yes, the mayor's job is to be executive, but it's not to make all the decisions."

Mrs. Dingman countered, "One decision was made by me. The board has voted on every other decision that has ever been made. So things that have happened have been with total board approval except the one issue that they were very angry at."

The mayor made the decision to fire water superintendent Daniel Richardson, a move that generated controversy in the community.

Mrs. Dingman said she is running again despite the apparent lack of public support in recent months because she thinks it's her responsibility to finish the shared water district project with Herrings.

"I just thought there's a lot going on, there's a lot of positive things happening, and it's kind of just my responsibility to follow through on it rather than to just go, 'Oh, everybody's angry now, I'll just disappear.' That didn't make a lot of sense," she said.

Mr. Foster said he has attended many board meetings and followed the project's progress. He said he would continue the initiative and possibly look for more funding sources.

The mayor said her opponent likely is unaware of the inner workings of village government.

"I think it's easy to be critical of what you think is happening in a village," she said.

Mr. Foster said that although he is inexperienced, his communication skills would benefit the community.

"We have to bring stability back to mayor's position and stability back to board. You can't have everybody up in arms. I want to get us back to a community," he said.

The challenger earned a bachelor's degree in social sciences from Cazenovia College and works at Lowe's as a team leader. While attending Cazenovia, he was a member of the Student Affairs Council, which iwas a liaison between students and the institution, and was active in the student government. He has lived in the village off and on for 10 years and hopes to pursue a career in politics.

If the vote taken at the July meeting at Mr. Foster's suggestion is any indication, the election will not be an easy win for the incumbent despite her securing the Republican line. About half of the more than 50 residents in attendance raised their hands in support of Mr. Foster's request for Mrs. Dingman to resign.

"I think that I really am very hopeful that the storm has passed," Mrs. Dingman said. "My main concern out of all of this was to make sure that the village residents were getting the quality services that they needed and they were getting quality work for the taxes they pay."

Two trustee seats also will be up for election. Trustee Larry W. Shannon is not seeking re-election. William S. Littlefield, who was appointed to the board in August after Joseph E. Cook resigned, is running along with Carlton H. Shettleton and Dennis T. Turpin.