If there is one thing I have heard more than Christmas Carols since Halloween it has been America’s newest mindless cliché that “it’s a brand new day in our country,” referring to the election of Obama.

Looking at the political and social climate in our own backyard during this past year, I am curious how different things are going to be here in West Seneca. A year ago at this time, we were saying good bye to the Paul Clark administration and looking to Wallace Piotrowoski, who himself promised West Seneca change. Yet over the last twelve months it doesn’t seem like much change has occurred at all, at least for the better.

We began the year, with what I believe are the now infamous departmental reviews which effectively shut down Town Government for months. Since then, Town Board Meetings have been described as a “Three Ring Circus” as the Council fights more than conducts business.

The Burchfield Nature and Art Center was one of the early victims having its staff and budget cut this past Spring. I personally haven’t seen or heard much from the organization since.

The West Seneca Hockey Rink, to the best of my knowledge is still closed and collecting mold.

Kevin Gaughan’s summer was, for the most part, wasted as members of the Town Council used a loop pole to, in my opinion, effectively cancel out the will of the people, or at least 4,000 of them, in denying us the right to vote on downsizing the Town Board.

I see in a new thread on here where we want to get rid of the Canisius Athletic Field on Clinton Street, I guess because preventing a multi-million dollar public sports complex from being built wasn’t enough.

We still have the unending saga of our favorite public figure who stills owes the tax payers $3 million, yet no one seems to be bothered by that. Nor are people bothered by the Town improperly transferring the properties on School Street to him, who in turn improperly accepted the gifts of public funds.

And the list goes on and on… indefinitely tabling Town employee resignations, ignoring and downplaying law suits against the town, getting rid of the DMV, wasting time fighting over recreation staffing at the parks, failing to merge the recreation department with the youth bureau and so on and so on…..

The common thread I see in all of these issues is a lack of dialogue. It seems everyone is divided and takes one side or the other and stands their ground. No negotiations, no discussions, just picking the side that serves their interests the most and blindly and stubbornly sticking to it. Call me an idealist and even naïve, but if we truly are in for a “new day” might we all have a hand in it by learning from the mistakes of this year and truly work together to get things done in our town in 2009.