By pattern, tonight should have been the Village of Honeoye Falls Board of Trustee meeting. Instead, they have rescheduled for tomorrow, citing Martin Luther King Jr Day as a reason.
While this is not the first year the village has rescheduled this meeting, there was a time, not that long ago, when they would have met tonight. To paraphrase a board member at the time, ‘if businesses are open, why shouldn’t we be’. According to the minutes, the January meeting was on Monday in 2011, 2012, 2013, and 2014. But it was not on Monday in 2015, 2016, and now 2017. While I had to look up the year change to confirm, this matches my memory (as spotty as that is).
So what happened in 2014 to cause this change in behavior?
I recall the village making a code change three times to allow drive thru restaurants. Twice they were sued and had to repeal it, the third time it stuck. The year after that, the January (and February) meetings moved off the Monday holidays.
The above should be (hopefully) accurate observations, below is where I go into wild speculation. Always good to differentiate between the two.
Board’s (and the groups they direct) may be composed of people, but they are not people themselves. Although, at times, they can act like people. In this case, I believe the Village was driven mad by it’s residents. I’ll leave it to your judgment if ‘mad’ means ‘no longer sane’ or ‘extremely angry’.
After having been ‘attacked’ and ‘beaten’ twice by those it was trying to ‘serve’, the village still acted as if it expected more ‘attacks’. And while I fully believe all the people involved (on all ‘sides’) meant well, at times they acted as if under ‘siege’ (or ‘besieging’, as the case may be).
I believe moving the meeting date was done, in part, to address some of the criticism the board received. Likewise, for a time, every t was crossed, and every i was dotted. Regardless of if doing so was just or proper. It was the law, and the law ‘protects’ us from those who may ‘attack’ us. Even if ‘they’ are ‘us’.
Forgotten (or obscured) that those who sit at the table, for a few hours, also live next door, all the time. An end to pointless (if entertaining) conversations of days gone by, what the kids are doing, and how best to bake a pie.
Was a messy, unpleasant experience for all involved. Or so it seemed to me, can only speculate on what goes on in the minds of others.
Wiser men then I have said ‘time heals all wounds’. And in this case, I’ll agree. While it doesn’t happen so often as it once did, and all boards have their own ‘flavor’, things seem to be shifting back towards the way I remember. Occasionally, t‘s go uncrossed (because, clearly, in this situation, it’s better for everyone). Sometimes, an i will miss it’s dot (so busy helping my neighbors, the residents, with this, and that, didn’t have time for that i). And yes, even conversations on pies happen (always pies). We have remembered that, at the end of the day, law and government exists to serve and protect us all.
Or maybe I’m wrong, and ‘greater’ affairs have ‘trumped’ our local issues.
I guess this all is my rambling way of saying: I don’t like when the pattern for meeting dates is changed. but if that’s what needs to be done to keep us from tearing ourselves apart, then I’ll live with it.