New York City, 2002 — “Sometimes your feelings become your memories.”
Steven Whipple said that’s when he realized his recollection of Sept. 11 was bogus.
Because he lived just two miles from the smoldering, stinking, spewing nightmare of Ground Zero, the former Albion resident reported his Greenwich Village neighborhood seemingly deserted for weeks.
“It was a ghost town,” he said. “No cars, no horns, no people and the restaurants were all shut down.” Then he consulted his journal, which told a different story. “Actually, it says here that it lasted only three days.”
Three days. Three weeks. Or 365 [...]
Following a great deal of opposition, the Town of Niagara has reversed its position on a proposed asphalt plant being developed by AL Asphalt.
Residents and numerous community groups were concerned about the environmental hazards from the plant, which was originally planned for the Town of Hamburg. However, vehement resident opposition forced the plant to find a new location.
During their March 25 meeting, the Niagara Falls City School Board and Superintendent Mark Laurrie approved a resolution to send negative comments to the DEC regarding the plant. Board Member Paul Kudela has been a driving force [...]
In a stunning betrayal of open government and transparency, the Niagara County Republicans sabotaged a compromise Tuesday to move most public speaking to the first 30 minutes of its legislature meetings.
Last week, during the legislature’s Administration committee meeting, Paul Wolf of the Buffalo Niagara Coalition for Open Government spoke and recommended passing a legislator’s resolution that would move “For the Good of the County” speaking to the beginning of the meeting.
Currently, residents wishing to speak to the legislature about non-agenda items must wait usually two or three hours to do so.
Additionally, the meeting is [...]
You really don’t want your local municipality going into executive session because it often means bad news.
A lawsuit against the town or city. A sticky personnel matter. Or contract discussions. At the very least, an issue the public should be aware of.
So be wary — be very wary — when the council calls to go into executive session.
Before they retreat behind closed doors, though, listen up to how they go about it because 97 percent of the time in Western New York, they’re doing it wrong.
“I move we go into executive session for the purposes of litigation” is a commonly heard phrase after you’ve [...]
