Why, oh why...

would you make a new law to allow anyone who didn't live in your town or village to sit on your decision making boards?

The Whitestown Town Board wants you to believe that they are making this law so that a current Zoning Board of Appeal (ZBA) member who has moved to Old Forge can still remain on the board. Why? They herald the fact that he has sat on this board for over twenty (20) years and they couldn't find anyone with that experience. Well, if he wants to move, Town Supervisor Gibbs and friends, maybe its time you did find someone else. Why would someone even want to stay on a board and have to travel over 50 miles? What's in it for him? How often is the weather going to be too bad for him to show up? And do you think they're not going to pay him mileage? And this is the least of it.

The Town Attorney states that we didn't even have to make it a prerequisite to at least own land in our town...aren't we glad he's on our side.

If that is all there is to this, why make a new law, why not just make an exception for this one person. In the future, any number of people (developers, etc.) could be elected to the town board, hand-pick their own people to sit on these boards and manipulate the boards and the development in our town.

We need to stand up to the Town Board and Town Attorney Schmitt..tell them NO!!!

Public Hearing Scheduled for March 18th...

When a town such as Whitestown has a select group of people running it and won't let anyone else in, things tend to get done that favors "the group" and it tends to breed corruption.

Point in question, Tuesday March 10, 2009, Utica Observer Dispatch Legal Ads. The Town Board is holding a public hearing to change the law that requires members of the Planning Board and the ZBA to be landowning residents of the Town of Whitestown.

The new law will read in part:

"Members of the Zoning Board of Appeals and Planning Board for the Town Whitestown need not be a resident nor an elector of the Town of Whitestown, provided however, that such person shall reside in the county in which such Town is located (Oneida County) or an adjoining county within the State of New York, and owns property located within the Town Whitestown."

The way we see this, the town board could approve developers to serve on these boards who live far away and merely own land in this town. Look at the map and note the distance between Oneida County and the far end of other counties that adjoin Oneida County. If this law is passed by the Town Board on March 18th, the Planning and/or Zoning Board members could be persuaded to approve projects brought before them by these developers without much fuss; leaving town residents "out in the cold" dealing with the consequences of any poor judgement calls by these boards. Not a good thing...but more and more that seems to be the way things are done in Whitestown.

Click on map for larger view.

The Public Hearing is on Wednesday, March 18, at 7:15 p.m. at the Whitestown Community Center, 1 Championship Way, Whitesboro, N.Y.! We urge all Whitestown residents to attend this meeting and voice your opinion.

We hope that thru this blog, we can point out some of the things that are happening in our town that most people are not aware of. We hope you will add us to your Favorites and visit often.

The Concerned Citizens of Whitestown