It was exhilerating and refreshing to hear a student address the Lancaster Town Board last week.

He declared that he had heard the school district was $1.6 million in debt and was wondering how that debt was going to be taken care of.

After Supervisor Giza informed the lad that “We are not the school board,” he told him that it is his understanding that there was going to be a $1.6 million shortfall this year and that part of the stimulus package from the state will cover that gap. So there will be no gap this year. “They were going to cut back, now they don’t have to.” Giza also added that the school had a very decent amount in the reserve, a fund they accumulate over a course of years in case an emergency like this would arise.

Giza continued that the governor’s position was that the state was billions in debt and that the schools were sitting on these large reserves that he wanted to make budget cuts and told the school districts to use their reserves. The stimulus package will cover that gap; at least for this year.

The student then said that he heard a lot of the town developments were put on floodplains and that he would like to know what’s being done.

Supervisor Giza informed the lad that “you can’t build on floodplains.” “Well, you can build on a floodplain, but there are certain restrictions. Where did you hear that?”

The student replied he heard it from his mother. Giza said that in the past things were done differently. Some houses wouldn’t be built today, such as the house on Stony Road that the lady before you spoke about and on her flooding.

The lady interjected that floodplain maps were changes and different codes were put into place. “Floodplain maps have been changed and it’s good to have watchdogs in place to make sure government is acting appropriately.”

Councilmember Donna Stempniak interjected that when board members were recently in New York City on business, one of the things they talked about was global warming and climate change. She was told that by the end of the century New York will have the climate of Georgia and that we should expect more large events, like snowstorms, floods and things like that. What they are talking about is encouraging green building to decrease the amount of energy used and to control climate change because all that has an impact on the naturally progressive stuff that is happening. “It’s just not development that is causing the flooding issues that a lot of people are referring to today."