Salivation in Whitestown . . .

Whitestown officials are virtually salivating at the prospect of “growth” a’ la New Hartford now that Rt 840 has opened. Per the O-D,

Such development will bolster the assessment roll and provide more opportunities for residents, Whitestown Town Supervisor Matthew Shannon says.

What opportunities? Another quick stop? More office space that will simply mean moving work from other parts of the region to Whitestown? We are an area of DECLINING POPULATION, remember? This is not growth — repeat, NOT GROWTH. It’s moving the deck chairs on a sinking ship. But Mr. Shannon wants Whitestown to be like New Hartford.

“That atmosphere is going to soon migrate over to the town of Whitestown,” Shannon said. “We’re prepared, and we’re shovel-ready for the growth.”

So we get another quick stop. But what do we lose? Perhaps an organic garlic farm? The region has plenty of quick stops, but not many garlic farms. In fact, anyone who can remember back 40 years when we had 85,000 more people in this County we also had a lot more active farm land.

What will happen when a plague or some other calamity hits the California vegetable bowl? Or the cost of transportation simply becomes too high? We will want farmland nearby– but by then it will be paved over. But that’s thinking long term — something that we’ve learned not to expect from our local officials.

How about short term?

Per the O-D the Roberts’ garlic farm is already threatened by runoff from the site of the proposed quick stop, caused by the apparently unregulated dumping of fill on the property. Echos of New Hartford! And, like in New Hartford, the negative impact falls hardest on particular individuals. These are the kinds of problems the residents of Towns expect their government to prevent from developing. . . not pay to fix damage caused by developers later. Town government should not worry about serving the interests of some entrepreneur in Arizona.

“Providing opportunities for residents” is a crock. Bolstering the assessment roll is the real deal here . . . providing opportunities for government officials. That’s been the story in New Hartford, and Whitestown wants to emulate it.

Enough already!