Reply With QuoteWhere are houses sinking?Originally Posted by GroundControl
Perhaps this is the FB post to which you are referring, GroundControl?
Reference: https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid...39859192706501Mark Blazejewski
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Thank you to Council Member Dawn Schroeder and to Waste Management for their speedy cooperative efforts.
It certainly is good to have a responsive town government once again!!!
Last edited by mark blazejewski; March 29th, 2024 at 11:15 AM.
LIDA Member Rinow to Member Ruda: You were a sitting Trustee on the Board. Did you help support Mr. Sweeney getting a seat on the CDC Board?"
Where are houses sinking?
In the Summerfield Farms Developement off of Bowen and William St has at least ten homes that have sunk enough to pull the underground electric and sewer connections away from the basement foundations. These homes should have never been built in a previous wetland swamp area. After much pressure and enough donations the Developer got his way and now is not legally responsible because of the way Dem majority did business.
Chair
Assessment STUDLEY DICKMAN BURKARD
Building & Grounds SCHROEDER LEARY DICKMAN
Code Enforcement DICKMAN SCHROEDER BURKARD
Drainage & Storm Sewer BURKARD DICKMAN SCHROEDER
Finance & Management LEARY STUDLEY BURKARD
Highway BURKARD STUDLEY DICKMAN
Library STUDLEY DICKMAN SCHROEDER
Moratorium DICKMAN SCHROEDER BURKARD
Municipal Liason LEARY STUDLEY DICKMAN
Parks & Recreation SCHROEDER LEARY DICKMAN
Personnel LEARY BURKARD SCHROEDER
Planning & Zoning LEARY STUDLEY DICKMAN
Public Safety DICKMAN BURKARD STUDLEY
Salvage Yards BURKARD SCHROEDER DICKMAN
School Liason STUDLEY SCHROEDER LEARY
Sidewalks & Curbs BURKARD DICKMAN LEARY
Solid Waste & Recycling SCHROEDER DICKMAN STUDLEY
Street Lighting LEARY SCHROEDER DICKMAN
Youth & Senior SCHROEDER LEARY BURKARD
Pleasant Meadows
Bowen-Broadway
Seneca Place
Several others as well. Houses built on hydric and other soils not conducive for weight bearing.
All in a time when developers ruled in the town and with town engineers and building inspectors who looked the other way.
A time when wetlands were wantonly destroyed and/or filled-in, creek tributaries filled in, creeks relocated for developer / town profit.
Thank you. Where did you find these? I looked on the page with the other years listed.
Georgia L Schlager
Regarding the hullabaloo on the Waste contract renewal and bulk complaints on this site:
Waste Management’s contract extension was renewed on 12/4/23 by the town; resolution sponsored by waste / refuse Committee Chair Dickman, receiving board unanimous vote approval. Extension of same contract.
There was no public hearing, no individual commenting on the resolution the night of approval – or at prior meetings or by communications, to my knowledge.
The town had no reason to hold a public hearing.
Some people don’t like the change from previous contracts where Waste Management would pick up just about everything – especially multiple items during construction / renovations. To keep refuse costs down the town decided on the once-per-month 3 bulk item pickup. Provisions were made for more than 3 items at the unit owners' expense – not at the expense to the entire community. A good idea, IMHO.
There will always be operational issues and complaints, but from what I understand not at the level being charged here or for Waste Management contract extension.
Looking around at other municipal operations and costs, Lancaster is doing well. I know a lot of people living in your town, Res, and you have a problem.
Lee,
You actually put your finger on a much broader concern your some VOL residents.
Perhaps Waste Management does well-serve the town's needs, but once again, it is the village that appears to be rather under-served.
In my earlier lifetime, the VOL was a rather strong and self-reliant community. It provided its residents with its own water, refuse, and policing needs. Over the past few decades however, the village has become dependent on the town for some of its most basic functions. It is now considered to be a fringe area, which desperately experiments with tools for some sort of resurrection.
Along with its dependency on the town, came what some consider to be underservice by its town benefactor.
Even more sadly, during that exact same time, VOL residents seemingly have become the unattended children of a cold and uncaring village government.
Many, myself included, are now seriously open to the idea of disbanding the village in favor of town absorption, but perhaps that would still leave the geographic area with the same underservice.
Instead of eastward absorption, may be it is time to consider a westward merger; something like "The City of the Twin Villages?"
I'll probably never live to see it, but I think it is an idea worthy of development.
Last edited by mark blazejewski; April 1st, 2024 at 08:40 AM.
LIDA Member Rinow to Member Ruda: You were a sitting Trustee on the Board. Did you help support Mr. Sweeney getting a seat on the CDC Board?"
Corrections to post #23:
Lee,
You actually put your finger on a much broader concern for some VOL residents.
Perhaps Waste Management does well-serve the town's needs, but once again, it is the village that appears to be rather under-served.
In my earlier lifetime, the VOL was a rather strong and self-reliant community. It provided its residents with its own water, refuse, and policing needs. Over the past few decades however, the village has become dependent on the town for some of its most basic functions. It is now considered by some to be a fringe area, which desperately experiments with tools for some sort of resurrection.
Regrettably, along with its dependency on the town, came what some consider to be, underservice by its town benefactor.
Even more sadly, during that exact same time, VOL residents seemingly have become the unattended children of a cold and uncaring village government.
Many, myself included, are now seriously open to the idea of disbanding the village in favor of town absorption, but perhaps that would still leave the village geographic area with the same underservice.
Instead of eastward absorption, maybe it is time to consider a westward merger; something like "The City of the Twin Villages?"
I'll probably never live to see it, but I think it is an idea worthy of development.
Last edited by mark blazejewski; April 1st, 2024 at 09:31 AM.
LIDA Member Rinow to Member Ruda: You were a sitting Trustee on the Board. Did you help support Mr. Sweeney getting a seat on the CDC Board?"
Mark, you present an interesting window into the future for the viability of two small villages to keep up with their service duties to their residents and the affordability of their budgets to support the costs of same. I think a good look into the VOL's real budget and real income would show a path spiraling downward toward the red side of the ledger rather than a solid bottom line in the black.
The Mayor has let quite a few budget items go un-replaced at the DPW (street sweeper, etc.). She has not replaced jobs and handed off service to the TOL. All of that while trying to get another one of her grant gifts to purchase an electric street sweeper and save money by spending someone else's and forcing Green Progressivism on all.
As the cost of things continue to raise so will the residents taxes. At some point those same residents must consider ALL options. I think the last few VOL administrations have not been up front about the real financial health of the VOL. It is why the Mayor has shrunk her focus to only see "free money" grants to keep above water and keep her seat of power. She placed an awful lot of eggs into Tom Sweeney's basket hoping to spur an economic rebirth while knowing all the while that for the next number of years ALL the sales tax money the VOL collects from that very same business district WILL be handed over to the TOL by an agreement Mayor Cansdale promoted and signed. That decision will eventually be the impetus that could bring your suggestion to a public in the financial need of another way to be governed.
When one actually looks at the path to your Twin Cities suggestion, it does seem as a really good idea for the VOD and the VOL.
The VOL presently pays the TOL roughly 1 million 100,000 dollars a years for the police coverage that once was done by the Village Police Dept. The Village of Depew has about 50 police offices I believe. They could easily cover the Village of Lancaster
When a municipality is a city it receive many benefits a village cannot apply for from the State and Federal government. It becomes it's own voting district, it becomes it's own school system.
I must say Mark, you have opened up a conversation that may have found it's time.
I have seen all sorts of experiments to revitalize the village over the last 50 or 60* years GC. and none of those experiments really panned-out.
In disgusted resignation, I have heard some old-timers talk of disbanding the village in favor of town absorption mention, but one clever and inspired person previously suggested to me the idea of the two villages joining together. I know that is out-of-the-box thinking, but the more I think of it, the more it makes sense; two similar units sharing so much in history and culture, joining together to form one bond.
Perhaps a future, well-thought out, and well-planned merging the two villages into one city, is really an idea worth developing. It couldn't hurt, eh?
LIDA Member Rinow to Member Ruda: You were a sitting Trustee on the Board. Did you help support Mr. Sweeney getting a seat on the CDC Board?"
I just looked at he Depew Village limits Mark and there is an awful lot of commercial property in the Cheektowaga side of the Transit Road imaginary boundary line between the two towns (Lancaster and Cheektowaga) that Depew pays homage too.
A Charter that combined the two villages as a certified city would bring an economic infusion of taxable properties into the newly formed municipality and a whole new financial advantage with which to better serve the residents.
The TOL is not equipped to serve the villagers in a manner they used to enjoy. A patrolman on foot walking the streets of the business district is comforting and gives the feeling of friendly security. that was the old way before short minded politicians took a poor decision and fired their own police department because they couldn't afford it and would not raise the taxes for fear of losing their seats.
I think both the villages of Depew and Lancaster are near broke and the citizens need to find the answer that will give them the autonomy that will allow them to survive with their life time neighbors in a comfortable profitable existence.
One City Council, one court system, one City Police Dept, one paid Fire Dept and so on.
There's an awful lot of possibilities.
Lancaster has a great town police force, but when compared to the defunct village police force, it seems to fall short in fully understanding and attending the unique needs of the VOL
In that regard, some believe that while the merger provided police services, over the long run, the retention costs to village taxpayers now include the reduced ability for the VOL to adequately fund a rapidly declining DPW, and perhaps other services.
Do I have that right, GC?
Last edited by mark blazejewski; April 1st, 2024 at 10:26 PM.
LIDA Member Rinow to Member Ruda: You were a sitting Trustee on the Board. Did you help support Mr. Sweeney getting a seat on the CDC Board?"
Perhaps a City School District, which in its funding and functions, is an entirely a different animal than a Centralized or Union Free School District, eh GC?
Nevertheless, a very intriguing concept, which given the current rate of evolutionary, common sense change, I probably will not live to see
LIDA Member Rinow to Member Ruda: You were a sitting Trustee on the Board. Did you help support Mr. Sweeney getting a seat on the CDC Board?"
Mark / GC
Dream on!
The Villages of Depew and Lancaster merge to form a certified city? That ship sailed a long time ago when the opportunity presented itself – if it truly ever did.
I have resided an equal number of decades in the Town of Lancaster and Village of Depew (in Depew on the Cheektowaga side as well as the Lancaster side.
I supported the police merger in 2003 and was of the opinion years before that while living in Depew paying three taxes that that the Villages and Town should have merged altogether. Politicians in the Villages wanted no part of that, wanting to govern their own little fiefdoms. They convinced their subjects how much better off they were with their ‘personal services’ touch.
It should have been one Lancaster, not a Town with two Villages incorporated within. Yes, the Village agreed to surrender all its sales tax to the town for 30 years after the 2003 police merger, an agreement made because the Village could not afford its police force back then. The Village was not in good financial shape even back then.
Ask Mayor’s Ruda and Peterson if they would be willing to give up their autonomy for the best interests of their residents. The Villages are flourishing, right?
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