Tonight (2021-06-21) was a meeting of the Honeoye Falls Board of Trustees.
The area was without electricity for a few hours before the meeting (your mileage may have varied). To their credit, the group was prepared to do what they could without power. Thankfully power came back shortly before the meeting was scheduled to start, and thus it went along more or less as normal.
The most significant change was the expected presentation by some RIT teachers and students was postponed. They will likely be back at some point to speak about the potential benefits of hydrogen and green technology.
The previously discussed deal with Roctricity/Joules is being backed out of. It was sold as a cost savings, but as the process continued along that could no longer be guaranteed. Accordingly, the Village ended the deal. Tangentially related, but due to this evenings electrical hiccups, I do wonder if increased reliance on renewable, but intermittent, power sources may make the overall grid less reliable. I can’t say for sure, but seems prudent to ponder. Measure twice and all…
A proposal for repairing Hyde Park was discussed. Total expected cost, for all aspects of the project, is ~$250k. Once work starts, estimated time is ~2 weeks. When that would be is still unknown. While the Board didn’t make a final approval, they seemed in favor of starting on the soon side. Concerns were expressed about conditions deteriorating (and costs increasing) as time goes by. See today’s storm…
The next Zoning Board meeting was publicized to be at the Mendon Community Center, but it turns out there is a conflict. So they are now expecting to be at the Village Office. As always, we all stumble along, doing our best even as we make mistakes. As the meeting date is July 6, there is two weeks for those interested to be informed.
The local Girl Scouts have reserved Harry Allen Park for October 16th, and their annual Pumpkin Festival. Good job on their part for planning ahead, a useful skill for life.
The Methodist Church is having a Music and Meal event in Harry Allen Park on July 10th, 1-10PM. To benefit ‘Water for Africa’. Might be worth checking out if you have that Saturday available.
The Waste Water Treatment Plant is continuing to explore the benefits of automation. In particular, linking all their devices together so that they become accessibly online. While the benefits were acknowledged, so was the potential risk from malicious parties. Which is all that can be really asked for at this point. If you are aware of the risk, you can plan for it.
There was an interesting discussion around the Cannabis law, and it’s repercussions locally. While no action was taken, it was acknowledged that there is a closing time frame to opt out. Otherwise we are opted in, by default. Towards that, the Zoning Board was charged with producing a map of where in the Village such facilities could be located. It will be interested to see their results.
Related to that, I made the comment that cannabis is still Federally illegal. And that having known lawbreakers (ie the sellers/growers/etc) paying the Village for the honor of breaking the law may not be the wisest acts. While we would not be the first to do this, willful breaking of the law should be done with care. Especially if you (as the Village government) rely on your people to not break your laws.
Which is to say, I’m all in favor of breaking bad laws. Justify the lawbreaking, be prepared to live with the consequences, take some time to seriously consider, and then (maybe) break the law. Our nation has a long history of people doing just that, and was even founded by a group of them. Is cannabis a similar case? I can’t say. But so far, all the reasons I’ve heard in favor boil down to ‘more money is good’. To a point, this is true. But greed is not a compelling reason, at least not for a moral people. Are we still a moral people? Or are vices now virtues?
Possibly related to that very question, the Highway Department employees will receive a pay increase soon. Related as too many people are currently receiving too high of unemployment benefits for them to work. In effect, being paid to work is competing with being paid not to work. Thus wages rise, taxes will rise to pay for it, and those actually working have to pay for it all. Those unwilling to work, continue to eat. Something I’ve been guilty of more often then I would like. But we are all imperfect. The question is do we strive to be better?
And those are my Observations From Audience Land for the June 21, 2021 meeting of the Honeoye Falls Board of Trustees.