Tonight (2017-11-20) was a meeting of the Honeoye Falls Board of Trustees.
There was a collection of tidbits, with little connection between them. Followed by a presentation from an unhappy resident. Made for a different feel to the meeting. Tidbits first, as they are small and bite sized.
David O’Connell was appointed as the Board’s Student Representative. I know I’ve seen him before, just can’t quiet place where. Probably a School function.
There will be a Christmas parade down main street on Saturday December 9th. Not any of the other dates that might have been mentioned by mistake. Likewise, a living Nativity will be in Harry Allen park on Sunday December 17th. And Troop 10 Boy Scouts will be having their Christmas tree fund raiser. These events are annual occurrences around here, and yet again have received approval from the Village board (as they should).
Apparently a number of residents have been complaining about ‘explosions’ in the morning. The Village is pretty sure it’s the local gravel pit, but will check with them for confirmation.
According to David (Superintendent of Public Works), his crew is ready for the winter snow. And the ~2/3 of them that are new are a bit anxious. Likely for the best, better to expect they worst and make due then be overconfident and fail.
Sounds like Christmas tree lights will be going up before Thanksgiving. Can’t fault the logistics, but I find it both sad and amusing that we are preparing for future holidays before the next one even happens.
The fire department has joined a program that provides them with smoke detectors to pass on to residents. Fitting, as prevention is easier then ‘cure’, especially when it comes to fire. If you would like some of these smoke detectors, give them a call at 624-1100.
Chapter 42 of the Village Code was repealed. Sounds like it will become policy instead of code. Either way, as far as I’m concerned, the smaller the code the better.
A member of the Planning Board received approval to attend training. Particularly ironic as the training happened last Friday. Still, seems to have worked out well enough.
With the tidbits out of the way, the main event of the night was a complaint about flooding. In the interests of full disclosure: I know everyone involved in the complaint, and lived next door for a number of years. I have since moved elsewhere, the decision to move was in no way influenced by flooding.
To summarize: a Monroe street resident is complaining about the water entering their yard from a neighbors property. They claim their neighbor is currently in violation of various laws, and the village poorly enforced the original site plan. They want the village to follow the penalties outlined in the code.
While I didn’t read the document pile that was handed to the board, the spoken presentation seemed well done. Frustration did bleed through at times, which is to be expected under the circumstances. To paraphrase the request, the resident wants everyone to stop playing ‘not it’ and have someone take care of the water.
Despite comments about how we work together, I got the impression they wanted someone else to fix their problem. Which is understandable. If someone makes a mess, that same someone should clean it up. Unfortunately, life isn’t always that straightforward and we often have to fix problems created by others.
This is the sort of issue where, regardless of what is done, it doubt it will be enough to make the resident happy.
Interesting enough, this seems to fit well with some training I had last week. In particular the part on ‘Resiliency‘.
And with all that, the board went into executive session. While I don’t know what they went on to discuss, I can speculate and would have liked to have been a fly on the wall during their continued discussion.
And those are my Observations From Audience Land for the November 20, 2017 meeting of the Honeoye Falls Board of Trustees.
Link to agenda on Village website.
Link to agenda stored on this site, should the village lose their copy.