By Jim Tricoli
AMHERST TIMES
At the Open Government Advisory Board meeting on September 21st there were many people in attendance who voiced strong opposition to our ZBA, Town and Planning Boards. All of the speakers shared the same opinion. They felt that when they are finally allowed to speak at any of those meetings their concerns aren’t heard or taken into consideration.
I reminded those in attendance that they can make changes to the Town Board with their vote. Read what the candidates are writing, go to any of the meet-the-candidate events like the upcoming event our committee will host. The more you learn about a candidate running for Town Board the better the chances are that you will hear a candidate who expresses your feelings and you will know that is the person you would vote for for our Town Board. The other two Boards: Planning and the ZBA, are not elected positions but rather are selected by the Town Board members.
When candidates purposely avoid attending any kind of candidate night, like ours, the reason is simple. The public can’t ask them questions about where they stand on the problems of Amherst and how they would try to fix these problems.
None of the Republican candidates have told us they will be attending the meeting our Open Government Advisory Board is holding as a meet-the-candidate night on Oct. 12th. We set it up to allow the residents of Amherst to come and question all candidates. The Republicans don’t want to be held responsible for the disappearance of what nature gave Amherst; trees and the green of our landscape. Instead they would vote for a concrete jungle. They don’t want to reveal their pro-development views.
We have offered an open invitation to all candidates running for office this November. They have received phone calls and face-to-face invitations to come and let the people hear their views on issues facing our town.
In case the public doesn’t know the names of the Republican candidates. There are two running for Town Board: Erin Baker and Joe Spino. Marjory Jaeger is running for Supervisor.
The Democratic candidates include Brian Kulpa, Shawn Lavin and Jacqui Berger. They have all accepted our invitation.
Originally published on Amherst Times. Republished with permission.
All WNY is made possible thanks to coffee and sleep deprivation.
We appreciate your readership. We like money, too.
