A casual observer might not have called it triumphal or even worthy of comment, but for governmental observers and watchdogs several important things took place Monday at Wheatfield’s town board meeting.
Department heads: Paul Siegmann of the Highway Department, Rich Donner of Water & Sewer, Mike Klock (above photo) from inspection, Assessor Bridget Grawe. Nearly all of them were present Monday.
But that’s not the new part. For some time now, Wheatfield has been leading the county’s major municipalities in having department heads speak regularly at council meetings.
This time, though, instead of remaining [...]
It’s the most basic level of transparency.
If you’re an elected city councillor, department head, other city official or member of the community and have something to say at a governmental public meeting, it stands to reason we — the people — need to hear it.
I cover city council and town board meetings in Niagara Falls, Lockport, Wheatfield and North Tonawanda, and I can tell you this is something that afflicts all of them to one degree or another.
Of course, I hold the last group — members of the community — least accountable because they are generally not professionals when it comes to communication nor do we really [...]
Don’t think of them as bridges. Think of it as just another part of the I-190. How else are you going to get from Buffalo to Niagara Falls relatively quickly without driving through residential areas?
If the effort to remove the Grand Island tolls stumbles yet again, it might be because the proposed law doesn’t accurately describe what the tolls inflict on the Buffalo-Niagara region.
Traveling from Buffalo to Niagara Falls using the I-190 there is simply no other reasonable way to get from there to here without crossing Grand Island.
The vast majority of motorists [...]
