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Thread: Lancaster residents ‘Scrooged”

  1. #1
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    Lancaster residents ‘Scrooged”

    Lancaster residents ‘Scrooged”

    At a time when people are reeling from Covid related impacts, the absurdity of the national election, hateful polarization, a needed emotional uplift is needed, and once again political agendas stand in the way.

    It was disheartening to read this week’s Lancaster Sun’s report ‘Lancaster resident’s holiday décor a no-go’ and discover that Christmas decorations donated by resident Tyler Sojka were being denied by the Village of Lancaster (VOL) because of a grievance issued by the Department of Public Work’s (DPW) CSEA Local 815 union.

    Sojka not only offered to donate the decorations but volunteered the labor and to absorb the costs of installing them. This was no different from what took place last year, so no precedent was set.

    The union rightfully objects to the decoration installment by Sojka, declaring the work is to be done by the ‘bargaining unit’ and has been done by the Highway Department workers for the past 20 years. However, the DPW also provides like assistance to other non-profit and volunteer organizations and groups. Who contacted the union and triggered this objection this year?

    The Village will be putting up its own annual decorations. Village Mayor William Schroeder claims the Village decorations are in rough shape, that Sojka’s are in better shape, have historic value, and that Sojka is trying to be good citizen.

    So, what has changed from last year? Sojka is quoted as saying that he thinks it could have been politically motivated. Considering Sojka is the son of Republican Party Chairman Greg Sojka, recently changed his party affiliation from Democrat to Conservative, there is every indication that Mr. Sojka is ‘spot on’.

    As the Christmas chorus goes: ‘We need a little Christmas, and we need it now’!

    Village and Town residents need a lift. Village businesses need a lift, especially those on and bordering the West Main development project.

    Political BS to the max!

  2. #2
    Member mark blazejewski's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Lee Chowaniec View Post
    Who contacted the union and triggered this objection this year?
    Some event, perhaps to be ascribed to a VOL actor, appears to be missing from the newspaper's sequence, just my impression.

    Was there an unreported occurrence, or contact, that took place between Schroeder's seemingly favorable conversation with Sojka in August, and the Mayor's discussion, seemingly in in mid-September, with a representative of CSEA Local 815?

    Does the Mayor normally give work orders directly to DPW union personnel, or does the Mayor usually pass his request on to the DPW Superintendent for disposition?

    Is not the DPW Superintendent William Cansdale?
    Last edited by mark blazejewski; October 7th, 2020 at 10:08 AM.
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    Member gorja's Avatar
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    I think the buck stops with Cansdale.
    Mr Sojka said he only offered to hang the ornaments because the DPW superintendent Cansdale
    had said the decorations may not be hung this year due to time constraints.

    So the village workers are crying that someone is taking their work away while their boss is saying
    the work may not be done due to time constraints.

    Which is it?
    I guess Monday night they will make a decision.


    Georgia L Schlager

  4. #4
    Member mark blazejewski's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by gorja View Post
    I think the buck stops with Cansdale.
    Mr Sojka said he only offered to hang the ornaments because the DPW superintendent Cansdale
    had said the decorations may not be hung this year due to time constraints.

    So the village workers are crying that someone is taking their work away while their boss is saying
    the work may not be done due to time constraints.



    Well, has not Cansdale previously used time management issues to explain rather controversial circumstances?...

    From The Lancaster Bee, September 27, 2012:



    William G. Cansdale Jr., the Village of Lancaster’s mayor since 1993, resigned his position on Monday night to become the village’s superintendent of public works.

    "Though he had a lot of latitude at his job with NYSEG, Cansdale felt he didn’t have enough time on his hands to fulfill his mayoral duties."

    “One of my frustrations has been the demands of the office,” Cansdale said. “It didn’t allow me the time to address all the needs of the village on a daily basis.”
    Reference: https://www.lancasterbee.com/article...village-mayor/
    Last edited by mark blazejewski; October 7th, 2020 at 06:33 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?"

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    Resident offers to hang personal collection of holiday decor in Lancaster, labor union opposes idea
    Lancaster Bee - by MARIA PERICOZZI Editor


    For as far back as Mayor William Schroeder can remember, the Village of Lancaster has always been decorated for the holiday season, and he says it will continue to be.

    With the annual Fire Truck Parade being canceled due to the pandemic, residents are looking to keep other holiday traditions the same, including the annual decorating of the village.

    Lancaster resident Tyler Sojka asked for permission to hang his personal holiday decorations on the lamp posts within the Central Business District in the village. He had either been given or purchased 74 different holiday decorations that can be hung on village lamp posts.

    “He has a passion for this vintage look and is proud of his village and wants to volunteer to hang these items,” Schroeder said. “He refurbished these for display and last year the DPW hung some of them along Pleasant Avenue West. They looked very nice and he is merely asking that he be allowed to do this project himself.”

    The Village of Lancaster Board of Trustees has been discussing the possibility of Sojka hanging the decorations with the help of volunteers and equipment from his father’s tree-removal company.

    Sojka obtained liability insurance and worker’s compensation insurance, and all of the financial guarantees the village attorney felt was needed, Schroeder said.
    “The only thing standing in the way are problems potentially with the union,” Schroeder said.

    For many years, the Lancaster Rotary Club donated and installed illuminated decorations on the village-owned light standards along Central and Pleasant avenues in the Central Business District. Schroeder said they would load the decorations on the back of a member’s stake body truck, erected some scaffolding and go from light standard to light standard and install Christmas trees, candles, candy canes and wreaths. The Rotary Club performed this service for many years but regretfully had to cease that project, Schroeder said.

    The Village of Lancaster Department of Public Works was assigned that job and has done it faithfully each year since, Schroeder said. They also hang garland, decorate the municipal building, front lawn and display the Nativity scene.

    In 2005, The Lancaster Opera House acquired several of the vintage AM&A’s window displays with grant funding through a former congressman and “Christmasville” was born. Two years later, the new opera house director decided the AM&A’s displays were too large and heavy, are difficult to get into the doorways of several businesses and window spaces and tend to be noisy. Some needed repair and finding the right “tinkerer” was difficult.

    Then-Mayor Bill Cansdale was asked if the village would like to take control of the displays and to continue the tradition.

    “Personally, I had walked the Central Avenue Business District and listened to the comments of people who looked at those displays and many reminisced about days gone by and happy times and who enjoyed that nostalgic look of the windows,” Schroeder said. “As a trustee at the time, I fully supported that idea and voted to pursue the idea.”

    Local resident and business owner Dawn Gaczewski of AdWorks was asked by Cansdale to take charge of this project and she was happy to volunteer her time and expertise. She decorated merchant windows with the AM&As displays, along with her own vintage animation collection. Soon the village was exploring additions to the holiday decorations to enhance and improve the ambiance in the Central Business District in an attempt to make Downtown Lancaster a destination.

    With no compensation from the village, merchants or town, Gaczewski designed and choreographed a music and light show that was displayed along the buildings on West Main Street and would run four evenings a week, attracting hundreds of visitors who would shop, dine and explore the wonderful businesses available to them.

    “The crowds that the animated windows and light show drew helped to grow our merchant community and fill empty storefronts,” Schroeder said. “Dawn spent several painstaking hours assigning each note of the Mannheim Steamroller & Trans-Siberian Orchestra songs she selected to blink, fade and flash with the 36 three-foot illuminated snowflakes that adorned the New York Store, lights on other buildings and the trees along Central Avenue.”

    Schroeder said her efforts were well received by the residents, merchants and consumer community, adding a new dimension to the holidays in Lancaster, along with fostering new traditions within local families.

    After her years of volunteering, Gaczewski was hired as events coordinator in 2013. Although most of the sound and light show was heavily damaged by the “Snow-vember Storm,” the Village of Lancaster has continued with its annual tree lighting ceremony, visits with Santa, a horse and carriage ride and sounds of the season by local Elvis tribute artist Terry Buchwald.

    Because of façade improvements, many of the storefronts in the Central Business District no longer had enough window space for the AM&A’s animations, so Gaczewski offered to use her own personal collection of antique animations and assisted those businesses by creating festive holiday displays since then.

    “The Village of Lancaster will be decorated this year for the holidays, just as it always has been,” Schroeder said.

    The Civil Service Employees Association Local 815 labor union filed a grievance against the village, after Sojka requested to hang the decorations.
    Schroeder said he was disappointed that the union did not come to him with their concerns.

    “Nobody’s trying to take any work from them,” Schroeder said. “In all the years I’ve been involved in the Village of Lancaster, which is well over 25, I don’t even remember a Public Works Department employee losing a job for any reason due to lack of work. … We’ve never done that and we’re not going to do that now.”

    When Boy Scouts approach the board about doing a project on public property, “the union never says a word,” Schroeder said.

    Schroeder said the collective bargaining agreement does specify that some work is exclusive to the DPW and has pointed out that this work has been done by the DPW over the last 20 years.

    “Since when does this board take its direction from the DPW union? They’re going to dictate to us what we can and can’t do?” Trustee Paul Rudz asked during a work session.

    There is no thought of “union-busting” or displacing any work or workers due to Sojka’s request, Schroeder said.

    “It is simply a matter of working out some type of agreement with the union that would protect their rights as a union and still allow Mr. Sojka to pursue his quest,” Schroeder said.

    Years ago, volunteers hung the decorations, and there never seemed to be a problem, Schroeder said.

    “The Village of Lancaster will continue to decorate the village for the holidays as we have done in the past and we will work with the union and Mr. Sojka to find an amicable solution,” Schroeder said.

  6. #6
    Member mark blazejewski's Avatar
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    More On The Christmas Decorations...


    From the Lancaster Sun, October 8, 2020:


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    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?"

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    Be aware. Democratic Totalitarians hate organized religion and will go to any lengths to prevent its manifestations. Simply look at Cuomo and DeBlasio going all out in their anti-Semitic drive in NYC. Cuomo produced 14 year old photos at his presser and claimed they were current in his twisted rage to shut down Orthodox Jewish religious celebrations. Whether the man is a pathological liar appears to be beyond doubt at this point. He’s lost 2 lawsuits already in his frantic campaign to use the Covid excuse to shut down religious practice in New York. Recognizing his borderline demented practice the NYPD are wisely standing by and doing nothing as Jews continue to exercise their Constitutionally guaranteed rights.

  8. #8
    Member mark blazejewski's Avatar
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    To the VOL Department of Public Works Superintendent Cansdale:

    "You may not know this, but anyone can make a donation to improve our Erie County parks system – whether it’s monetary or in the form of services."


    It is amazing what good old fashion volunteerism, community spirit, and good works can accomplish when politics are put aside, eh?


    Community can donate money, services to parks

    October 15, 2020

    My son, Tyler Sojka, spoke about helping clear out the dam at Como Park Lake. Legislator Frank Todaro gave me the paperwork and information to apply Sept. 25. The Erie County Parks, Recreation, and Forestry was very grateful and approved the donation and it was completed Oct. 5. I wish all government and private businesses worked this well.

    You may not know this, but anyone can make a donation to improve our Erie County parks system – whether it’s monetary or in the form of services.

    I think it is a great program for people and companies to donate not just money but their services. It helps the community and does not cost taxpayers.

    Anyone who is interested can find more information at www2.erie.gov/parks/ sites/www2.erie.gov.parks/files/uploads/PARKS%20DONATION%20REQUEST%20FORM.pdf

    Gregory Sojka
    Spruceland Terrace
    Lancaster
    Reference: https://www.lancasterbee.com/article...ices-to-parks/
    Last edited by mark blazejewski; October 16th, 2020 at 08:21 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?"

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    Everything is about politics

    Village of Lancaster residents get ‘Scrooged’ and resident Tyler Sojka gets ‘screwed’.

    At a dark time when the public needs a shot of normalcy and cheer, a resident who wants to donate holiday decorations to adorn the Village Streets is being rebuffed by a ‘bloc’ of Village officials under the pretense of time availability and Village employee union contract.

    Sojka proposed the project idea in August, initially offered to even hang the ornaments, rescinded the offer to hang the decorations when told of the DPW employee union objection, still offered the decorations with the condition they be returned in same condition as donated, and where the Village board initially found the offer acceptable.

    As reported in the Lancaster Sun: During Monday night’s Village Board meeting, Village Board officials decided to table Sojka’s offer until next year, a motion made by Lancaster Trustee and Special Events Committee Chai Joe Quinn and passing 3-2. Quinn, and Trustees Lynne Ruda and Paul Maute made up one bloc and Mayor Schroeder and Trustee Pul Rudz made up the other.

    “I would be very happy to work with them early next spring,” Quinn said during the meeting, gives us time to get all the ducks in a row.”


    Sojka is quoted in the report that he was disappointed that the project had been stalled since August, that he did not see the project advancing any further, even in the spring. Sojka is planning to donate the decorations to other municipalities. Village of Depew Mayor Kevin Peterson has accepted the use of some.

    Village of Lancaster Mayor Schroeder declared the village would use the decorations it has in the past, but as he the board had earlier acknowledged Sojka’s were in better condition. Schroeder was quoted as saying: "I just felt bad for him because he's a citizen that wants to do something nice for the community . I give him a lot of credit. We don't have enough people like that."

    The town had used some of Sojka's decorations last year!

    Bah, humbug!

  10. #10
    Member mark blazejewski's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Lee Chowaniec View Post
    Sojka proposed the project idea in August, initially offered to even hang the ornaments, rescinded the offer to hang the decorations when told of the DPW employee union objection, still offered the decorations with the condition they be returned in same condition as donated, and where the Village board initially found the offer acceptable.

    As reported in the Lancaster Sun: During Monday night’s Village Board meeting, Village Board officials decided to table Sojka’s offer until next year, a motion made by Lancaster Trustee and Special Events Committee Chai Joe Quinn and passing 3-2. Quinn, and Trustees Lynne Ruda and Paul Maute made up one bloc and Mayor Schroeder and Trustee Pul Rudz made up the other.
    Is this the type of behavior that the VOL taxpayers residents can expect from the Integrity Party if they prevail in the future?

    Nah, a bag of coal for it and its candidates in March!



    Quote Originally Posted by Lee Chowaniec View Post
    Sojka is planning to donate the decorations to other municipalities. Village of Depew Mayor Kevin Peterson has accepted the use of some.
    Thank you to Tyler Sojka and Mayor Petersen for providing us with an opportunity to revisit Christmas past.


    To Ruda, Quinn, and Maute, I think that Joe Biden wishes to thank you for supporting his "Dark Winter" agenda.
    Last edited by mark blazejewski; October 30th, 2020 at 08:25 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?"

  11. #11
    Member mark blazejewski's Avatar
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    Thank You to Tyler Sojka for sharing his private collection of Christmas decorations, and to Depew Mayor Petersen for permitting, without petty obstacles, this display.


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    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?"

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