Sham Meeting

 

Wainscott

March 29, 2011

Dear Editor, 

Well here we go again, the town board is considering holding another farce meeting on the leaf-pickup program. They didn’t listen to the residents the first time so why waste our time again? This meeting is solely to amend the code and take the program out. How dare you not listen to the people? Ms. Quigley’s volunteer program was a dismal failure — nada — except for the photo shoot where she and Dominick Stanzione primped for the camera. They vanished right after the pictures were taken.

I actually believed that government would listen to the people they work for. Duh! We all attended this sham meeting thinking just that. Well that was the farce that was perpetrated upon the residents who attended in good faith. Too bad the board majority doesn’t know what good faith is. I presented facts and figures of the escalating costs we were incurring and it fell on deaf ears.

The majority on the board had already made up their minds but none of us thought it was a done deal. The number that it actually cost is about $16 per household. That is what the savings amounted to. 

Well I, for one, had to spend close to $600. So even with the tax savings, I am in the hole for almost $400, and I did most of the raking myself. So now if you deduct the $11.34 line on my tax bill for a self-supporting facility that is used by a select few, then the actual savings to the town is $4.66 — not even enough for a pint!

Now we have $4-a-gallon gas. Food is up 22 percent. Fuel oil to heat is over $4 a gallon, and go buy a set of tires! So the arrogance of this board continues and is second to none. Why a second dog and pony show? They are already licking their chops. Any other brainstorm ideas to stick it to us? The Irish thought the Tudors were bad.

Yours truly,

ARTHUR J. FRENCH