Why We Need Recall . . . in New York Mills!

I’ve blogged at least a couple times about our need for rights of initiative, referendum and recall – - so that the voters can do the dirty work that their elected representatives are unwilling to do. Well today on page 6D of the Observer-Dispatch is a prime example of why we need recall.

Just a few weeks ago New York Mills voters rejected an 8.9 million dollar school construction project – - – It was a narrow defeat, but a defeat none the less. Today a Legal Notice was published that the matter is coming back for another vote on January 23.

This is an abuse of power, plain and simple.

The school board knows that all they have to do is some minor tweaking and they can bring the matter back on a second time. . . . or a third. . . . or whatever it takes until it passes. The schools control more votes than ever because of their expanding employment practices, with teachers’ assistants and aides becoming the norm rather than the exception. Although voting is a “civic duty,” people eventually get sick of being ignored . . . so voters who don’t support such spending will stay home. . . . .

Once a bond vote passes, the voters on the losing side don’t have an equal opportunity to bring the matter back up again . . . and again.

New York Mills’ population is dropping, so not expanding is not going to create an emergency for the school board to deal with. The school board needs to show respect for the residents. The voters have spoken.

The New York Mills school board mocks the referendum process and disrespects the will of the people. Every school board member who voted to put this matter up for a vote again should be ashamed.

A right of recall — the right to immediately vote them out of office — might make these people a little more sensitive to what the voters are saying.

The Key to the Future . . .

According to the O-D headline, “rivers, trails key to area’s future.” Oneida County is seeking to make better use of waterways in the Mohawk River corridor. Undoubtedly, the headline is a lot of hyperbole.

But Oneida County Chief Planner, Ms. Breiten, makes a good point:

“This whole thing started because there is currently a lot of public-held property within the corridor, along the river and the canal, and it just seemed logical to try to link these publicly owned lands,” Breiten said.

That’s what we like to see — LOGIC in our government’s workings. And linking existing publicly owned lands along the river and canal seems to be one way of making the whole greater than the sum of its parts.

As readers of this blog know from some of my photos, there is a lot of beauty along the river and canal. I regularly bike from Utica to Oriskany and have gone from Oriskany to Rome. The bikeway is a great asset that people are just starting to become aware of and use.

A greatly under utilized (non-utilized is more accurate) area is the eastern end in Utica at the canal entrance to Utica Harbor. The lock looks non-functional. Maybe it can be fixed? The harbor proper holds potential for waterfront development and boat useage. Down valley villages have done a marvelous job with their harbors. Utica, the largest city on the canal between Syracuse and Schenectady, logically should have the largest harbor development. There is a lot of public land just ready to be used. And there should be money available to clean up a lot of the contaminated old riverfront sites.

A disappointment on the western end is the trail ending on a heavily traveled highway just short of Rome proper. It is just begging for a pedestrian/bike-friendly connection into downtown and the fort, with some clear signage.

Another disappointment is the lack of a connection from the canal trail to the Oriskany Battlefield and Monument. It would seem to be a natural destination.

Of course (and I hate to say it but it seems to be true) the O-D is pushing a New Hartford agenda again by wanting trails in the Sauquoit Creek Basin. While that would be nice, NH has already gotten a lot of County largess . . . and it can well afford to implement its own trail system. While the 840 trail is “OK,” it does not have the scenic or historic potential to attract a regional clientèle like the Mohawk River trail system does (which will eventually stretch from Albany to Buffalo). It would be wasteful to spend county money on far flung projects that would attract limited interest.

Lets focus on the Erie Canal – Mohawk River areas first — Utica, Rome, and Oriskany — and make better use of the public lands we find there.

Mohawk Valley: Help Thyself . . .

There was an interesting editorial by a Mr. Livadas in this past Sunday’s (12/2) O-D entitled “It’s time for the Mohawk Valley to help itself.” [I would link to it, but it has not been posted online yet.] He really got my attention and had me nodding in agreement (in spite of the mixed metaphors) when he described “the ship of state,” as a now grayed “yellow brick road” passing eastward through places from Lackawanna to Amsterdam, “once stable, industrious cities and towns, now laying comatose,” that ends in a “flourishing Emerald City” (i.e., Albany). He had me cheering when he said:

“Space prohibits citing the litany of ill-advised decisions leading to the current disheartening state of affairs. But one thing is certain: the birthplace of many of our problems is on the steps of the state Capitol in Albany.”

He then called on the leaders and people from Rome, Utica, Herkimer, and the various townships to “[p]ush aside all city vs. city competing “priorities” and establish one priority – the revitalization of the Mohawk Valley . . . ” to “join together in an unprecedented spirit of cooperation and good will to . . . “

“form a study commission to undertake a thorough analysis of the issues confronting our region.“

That’s where he lost me! He had just articulated a lot of the problems that NYS has created for upstate, but now we need a study commission? To tell us what? The things that we already know?

“Commission members would be composed of local state officials such as state Sen. Joseph Griffo, who has formed a committee of business leaders to review the area’s needs, together with the presidents of the Utica, Rome, Herkimer and other Chambers of Commerce. Mayors, supervisors, the county executive , economic development officials, civic leaders and area college presidents are to be included.”

He really lost me there. He would put in charge the very same officials and “influential” community leaders who have presided over our decline. Their impotence has spanned decades.

The end product of this committee would be a “Revitalization Master Plan” for the Mohawk Valley. But this is just “pie-in-the-sky” philosophizing. While Mr. Livadas would have each municipality put aside its own interests for the benefit of the whole, it simply does not work that way when are talking about local development. As I pointed out in my “Reconnect” post, as long as our municipal boundaries separate people into groupings that will unevenly share costs and benefits, attempts to force “cooperation” will end in “competition,” and efforts will be lost in “friction” among the elements. Only when the people reorganize themselves into new municipalities which encompass people with common interests and lets them all share in both the costs and benefits of their decision-making will that friction be overcome.

But even if the Mohawk Valley could be remade into one city to eliminate our regional “frictions,” it would not remedy the major woes that stretch in common across Upstate from Schenectady westward — the woes so well articulated by Mr. Lividas. We would still have Albany-imposed millstones around our neck such as the Thruway and its Tolls, utility rates that are out of proportion with our incomes, state taxes and fees that are out of proportion with our incomes, government programs and regulations that make sense from a Downstate — but not an Upstate — perspective. The fact that Upstate legislators do not demand removal of these millstones bespeaks of their being beholden to Downstate interests for their survival.

The only thing we could hope for is for a new boundary to be drawn around Upstate that allows us the opportunity for some self-determination — to make our own policies in certain areas. The current political leadership on both sides would never go for this. If the public had the right of initiative, referendum and recall, however, there may be a chance for a reorganization — because, on a person to person level, people are not that different. They have many hopes and aspirations in common. Downstaters would understand and appreciate the benefits of self-determination as much as Upstaters would.

New New Hartford Nonsense … Part 2

Cathy continues her story of the NH Official plates on privately owned vehicles. It is amazing that the trucks could have sat in the same parking lot at the same time as two manned NH police cars . . . but nothing got done until months later when the State Police got involved. Give me a break.

NEW HARTFORD IS SIN SUBURB!