NRDC: Clean Water and Oceans Links Including the following:

Clean Water Network - An alliance of over 1000 organizations working to protect our nation's water resources.

Edwards Aquifer Home Page - All about a unique groundwater system and one of the most prolific artesian aquifers in the world.

Environmental Working Group - Provides the public with locally relevant information on public health issues including drinking water.

Water Keeper Alliance - Helps citizens protect their communities and waterways from polluters by developing environmental "neighborhood watch" programs.

TAKING IT SLOW SO THEY CAN DO IT RIGHT - AN EXCUSE FOR NOT DOING IT AT ALL!

After last Wednesday's Water Protection committee public meeting Supervisor Betty Pitman came up to me and made it a point to tell me that the APD would be "NOT THIS YEAR" referring to a letter I gave her and the committee that indicated that they were not going to do it at all. She was inferring that they were going to do it but "NOT THIS YEAR". She did not say they were going to do it next year or exactly when they were going to do it but she was emphatic that it sure as hell wasn't going to be this year! Then at the Town Board meeting Anne Henderson was also emphatic that they were going to "TAKE IT SLOW" to 'DO IT RIGHT' and then went on and on outlining ways they were going to use to make the process as slow as possible. I've outlined this in a previous story. That is why I came to the rather obvious conclusion they weren't going to do it at all and use the process of 'taking it slow' to kill it. Oh yeah, they're going to do it and I'm going to clean out my garage too and we're both going to 'TAKE IT SLOW' so we can 'DO IT RIGHT'. I'll bet they both know how to play the fiddle.

ATTENTION ALL HUSBANDS: Use the above example provided by Pitman and Henderson the next time your wife wants you to do something you don't want to do. Just tell her you're going to do it but you have to take it slow so you can do it right.

Hand me that hammer...
Sometimes programming, coding or even working with HTML (web pages) can be fun… when it works. Other times… well, it's kind of like that time in Dallas, stuck on the runway in sweltering heat waiting for a thunderstorm to pass. The plane was completely full and the air conditioning wasn't keeping up, not even close. The smell of foul breath and body odor slowly filling the cabin as the heat and humidity increased. Then the little baby in the seat behind starts crying, louder and louder, the mother frantically trying to stop it to no avail. You feel compassion at first then that slowly fades as the combined indignities press on your brain until… Suddenly the speaker crackles and the captain announces you are starting to move and everyone cheers. Programming is sometimes like that except for the cheers. I'm struggling with the 'archive' function. It sort of works, the book says it should work, but it doesn't work. Stand by a second, I need to go get a bigger hammer.

Issue: Song Mountain Snow Making Well


"The one key point that Pat made was that if Song tried to use the well the town could and would get an injunction that would stop it quickly, in a day or two. This was discussed at length because I was concerned, as you can see by my letter below, that once the well was connected it would be used without the precautions. Pat assured all of us that Song could not use the well and that the injunction would stop it. He said that this was, in effect, a stop work order. Pat also seemed to suggest that once Song came back with their final plans the public would have a chance to look at and comment before they were put in place."

Song hasn't come back with any plan that I remember but then again my memory isn't what it used to be. I did a search on this site and nothing after the above dated article from 12/6/01! Is Song trying to pull a fast one? Yes, of course they are, this is Peter Harris after all and that is one guy I know like the back of my hand. I'll have more about him and his foibles later. For now read the above article and wonder why the town is doing nothing about it.

OFFICIAL POLITICAL CALENDAR 2003

Primary Election - September 9 (The caucus is the real election for Preble and that is sometime in August.)
General Election - November 4

This political calendar contains ready reference to the significant dates pertaining to elections to be held in this state. It constitutes a valuable guide to the proper administration of our election process. For complete information be sure to consult the applicable Election Law and Regulations.

All dates are based on statutory provisions in effect on the date of publication. Final confirmation should be obtained from your county board of elections.

Thinking of running? This is for you.

Also check the Cortland County Board of Elections

I'll be putting up more details about running for office in the coming days.

THE GLOVES COME OFF!

I made a decision a year and a half ago to try a different tact with the new Town Board. I would go easy on them and give them a chance to do the right thing. It didn't work. For the last year and a half I watched them wiggle this way and that trying to sneak stuff over on the people such as the commercial rezone of the park, Song Mountain and the Girl Scout camp. I've just gotten tired of it all. I thought for awhile that they were actually going to do the APD and I figured if that were the case then my choice of staying quiet was a good one. As you will see they are not actually going to do an APD and I feel no need to stay silent any longer. So, let the fur fly because from now on I'm calling it like I see it and that will be that!

(Oh gee, now the're going to be really mad at me... Right! Like they loved me before. Besides none of them read the site (according to them) so why worry.)

My decision came at the Monday night Town Board meeting. All was going fine until Anne Henderson gave a report of their public meeting last Wednesday at the fire hall. I was very curious about how she would respond to my giving her the APD (here on the site). I was amazed at her reaction. In a way it was funny because you could tell she was really pissed about it and she would lose her temper, say something really off the wall and then regain it and sound normal. A real roller coaster experience. (paraphrasing here mind you... Plus you have to imagine this being said by an irate old woman.) She would talk normally then her voice would rise and "We're not going to accept some APD that just has Preble written across the top" then back to a normal voice for awhile then rise again and "We're going to do our own APD" then back to a normal voice for awhile then rise again and "We're not going to use something from out of town" well, you get the drift. When the subject of releasing the dates when her committee met she said, "We're not going to be taking any comments, you can watch but that's it." And when I asked about posting the dates Betty said she would only put them on the board at the town hall and we had a discussion about that for a bit. She laughed nervously about that and finally said I could call her every day but she might not answer the phone. Cute. They are being very exclusive about the whole thing and they and only they would be doing anything with it and at their own slow pace.

Their attitude shows in something as simple as the layout of the table at the front of the room. It used to be open with all the board facing the public in an open way. Now it is closed and they face each other, symbolically excluding the public. It's their town, they own it and we are excluded... period! Forget for now that they got elected by cheating and are there as frauds. *

They have an attitude of inaction guised in the policy of needing to "take it slow" They have been at this for about six months now and they have yet to produce a report promised two months ago. At the Wednesday meeting they talked about making the park, Song and the Girl Scout camp recreational (commercial). Why? Don Armstrong has been spending the last year lobbying everyone in sight to make Song commercial and when that was questioned they said he misspoke, he meant recreational which is just a guise for commercial. Oh come on, we can see what's going on here. It's the same old charade to try to juggle the law to do a bennie for some friends. Which ones? Well, Don Armstrong was the lawyer for Marilyn Stoker back when they did the favor of letting Song put their well on Marilyn Stoker's property and that made a sale for Marilyn Stoker to Song. Now they are talking about condos on Song and perhaps some neighboring property and Don Armstrong is pushing for the rezone to "eliminate a step" as he said at that meeting. What step you ask? You know, the step that protects us by stopping unwanted things. Why else try to rezone it.

As far as the APD goes, well, don't hold your breath on that one. Doing the APD, which would protect our water supply if done right, will also restrict development to non polluting developers. This would slow down certain people with certain financial goals in mind. It would interfere with the retirement plans for the anointed.

Are they giving lip service to the APD or just giving us lip. Last night it was the lip. Anne didn't like being given a completed APD and said so in so many words. Such as (again paraphrasing) "We're not just going to put Preble on the top of some page from somewhere else, we're going to do our own APD" Referring to the APD that Dan Dineen and I worked on. Doing their own will require throwing away the experience gained from the other APDs and probably making the same mistakes they made. Why be so obstinate? Why not use what has been done before as a basis for Preble's APD. Well, because they didn't like the messenger they are going to waste time, money and throw away what was handed to them on a platter. Pig headed is a phrase that comes to mind. It's foolish! All they seem to want to do is weaken the code to make it easier for their friends to make some money by doing what is now illegal to do. They don't want an APD, they don't want to protect the water supply, not if it interferes with their friends plans. They just want to make a big show of doing an APD to quiet the masses about our polluted water.

At this rate it will take then 2 to 3 years to finish this. I could do it in a week, perhaps two. But my version would strengthen the law, protect the water and prevent their friends from making all that money. In short if you want to protect the water and strengthen the laws you are going to have to have a different Town Board that has the interests of the people as their top priority and this crowd isn't it. *

For a year and a half I haven't been saying anything but that doesn't mean I haven't been watching and taking notes. Things are going to get exciting here on the site and in town as I unload 18 months of pent up crap.

Let the fur fly.

*This does not refer to the two new Town Board members… yet.

Town Board Meeting 6/9/03

Well, If you were worried that the town was going to rush into making changes in the code or the land use plan or create an APD anytime soon you needn't have worried. According to Betty Pitman and Anne Henderson they are going to take it real s l o w... r e a l s l o w... AND they aren't all that eager for any help from outside either. In the meantime the threat to the water supply looms over Preble like a giant bird of prey waiting and waiting and waiting...

Full report on the meeting later...

The Future of Preble
SOME WANT A GAS STATION

OK, let's talk about that. Having a gas station in the aquifer carries with in some risk. Is that risk worth it to the people for the convenience, jobs and taxes generated? more...

BAD REASONS NOT TO DO GOOD THINGS!

At the public meeting last Wednesday most people were for protecting our water supply and doing an Aquifer Protection District. A very few made the absurd objection that because we could not control what happens on Rt 81 and the Rt 81 rest area we should not try to do anything to protect the rest of the town. This is like saying that because you cannot protect your kids when they are at school you should not do anything to protect them at all! But it is more absurd than that. The argument itself is wrong. IF there was a spill on Rt 81 or in the rest stop it would be known immediately and HSMAT teams would be called in and the spill would be cleaned up in hours. There will never be a spill on Rt 81 or the rest area that will be there long enough to harm the aquifer. The rest of the aquifer is in far more danger because pollution left unchecked can and HAS infiltrated the aquifer. That happened just last year when nitrates from ag polluted the aquifer and poisoned dozens of wells in Preble.

There is no question we need an APD, the only question is what are the motives some people have for not doing it?