Tonight (2017-03-13) was a meeting of the Mendon Town Board.
While waiting for the meeting to formally start, I noticed that of the ten people in the room, only one didn’t have glasses. From one end of the table to the other, glasses worn by all.
There was a windy storm last week. Relevant here because Bud (Highway Superintendent) said we had much less cleanup then some other locations. Much of this was credited to aggressive tree trimmings. Lots of trees still fell over, but very few on the roads. I can only offer a supporting anecdote, not real evidence. I saw a number of trees down during (and after) the storm, none of them were on the road itself.
Solar farms came up as a point of discussion. Was unclear what the Board’s opinion was, but they were discussing the economics of renting land for solar power and how that could impact the town. From that, what should the Town do. No action was taken, as it was only a discussion, but my sense was they want to address this before it becomes an issue. So if you care about solar farms in your backyard, still time to have your opinion heard.
Municipal consolidation was also discussed, an idea that has been increasingly pushed by the State. No one was suggesting Mendon consolidate with Honeoye Falls, if anything they seemed opposed to the idea. Of note here, it looks like a Town has no say on if they are forced to absorb a Village. The decision (if it came to it) would be made by village residents, and then we all have to live with the results. It was mentioned that from the handful of consolidations that have happened, they lead to increases in tax rates and creation of new taxing authorities for various districts. Thus an attempt to lower the amount of government and taxes, leads to more government and taxes.
The town has now adopted a credit policy, since they are looking to get a credit card. This was motivated by Google, which the Town is looking to use for an off site email. Which in turn, was motivated by the State’s FOIL requirements. What I heard sounded good, I just found it humorous that the Town is only getting a credit card so they can pay Google, because of State requirements.
Bud is looking to replace (or expansion, detail was unclear) the salt barn, where the salt used for the winter is stored. A number of reasons for this, one of the larger being environmental concerns about salt leeching into the nearby marsh. I may be misreading things here, but it sounded to me like if this was a private business, instead of a governmental agency, they would have been closed down years ago. Instead, they have done what they could, while saving money for this project. And now they have enough to start planning for the construction. Good job here, making the best of a situation that was inherited.
Social Media was mentioned multiple times tonight. In particular, as causing the town to take extra steps to make sure they communicate with everyone. Generally a good thing, as government should fear the people. I just find it a bit sad that enough people take things out of context that there is the need. But as an old saying goes, “A Lie can travel halfway around the world while the Truth is putting on its shoes“.
I found it rather ironic how many times other governmental agencies came up as a cause for action. Generally, in the context of taking what would otherwise be unneeded actions. Higher level of governments, farther away from the people, force lower governments to do certain things, because …? However noble the intention, there are times to step back and leave those closest to the situation to work it out on their own. Most of the time that is best, for everyone. Except for he that ‘dreams himself your master‘. Extra ironic as earlier today I was hearing about the evils of computer games.
And those are my Observations From Audience Land for the March 13th, 2017 meeting of the Mendon Town Board.
Link to agenda on Town website.
Link to agenda stored on this site, should the town lose their copy.