Thursday, August 24, 2006
What We're All About
This is my first blog posting (actually, I have to ask our web-person what “blog” stands for). Anyway, I am told that I should write an article to post on our website. I guess that I should begin by telling our web-viewers a little bit about our Town Board. We were elected to office to work for our constituents; the decisions that we make should be in the best interests of our town. I am proud to say that we work very well together and that we take our responsibilities to our town’s people very seriously. We believe in open government. The changes to this website, the changes to our meeting room, the future installation of cameras in our meeting room to televise our meetings (hopefully in October), are all small changes with the intent to communicate better with the public. My favorite President is Abraham Lincoln and in the Gettysburg Address he described democracy as "government of the people, by the people, and for the people." In my opinion, that is what the East Fishkill Town Board is striving for.
One example of reaching the public was the input that we received at the July 13th workshop meeting regarding the proposed closing of Phillips Road. A few months ago the developer of Four Corners had requested that the Town Board abandon the old Phillips Road and make the newly constructed Phillips Road the town road. At our workshop we had an excellent turnout and the people that spoke made some very good points which were instrumental in our decision to deny the applicant’s request to close the road. This was a very complex issue. We had to consider the legal aspects of our decision and we had also to consider the procedural aspects (did the applicant take all the necessary steps to ensure the road closure), the safety aspects, the traffic flows, emergency vehicle access, the County’s recommendations, and, of course, the people. In the end, although the developer may not agree, we feel that the decision not to close Phillips Road was the right decision (although we did accept the new road as a town road also). Boy, it seems that in this day and age nothing is simple anymore; but, we must remember that we work for the people.
Well, that is my first blog posting – I hope that this information was useful. To be honest, the Phillips Road decision was very complicated, and things are not going to get any easier. As a town we face numerous challenges and we will take them one-by-one and get through them, we have to; hey, East Fishkill is our home.
One example of reaching the public was the input that we received at the July 13th workshop meeting regarding the proposed closing of Phillips Road. A few months ago the developer of Four Corners had requested that the Town Board abandon the old Phillips Road and make the newly constructed Phillips Road the town road. At our workshop we had an excellent turnout and the people that spoke made some very good points which were instrumental in our decision to deny the applicant’s request to close the road. This was a very complex issue. We had to consider the legal aspects of our decision and we had also to consider the procedural aspects (did the applicant take all the necessary steps to ensure the road closure), the safety aspects, the traffic flows, emergency vehicle access, the County’s recommendations, and, of course, the people. In the end, although the developer may not agree, we feel that the decision not to close Phillips Road was the right decision (although we did accept the new road as a town road also). Boy, it seems that in this day and age nothing is simple anymore; but, we must remember that we work for the people.
Well, that is my first blog posting – I hope that this information was useful. To be honest, the Phillips Road decision was very complicated, and things are not going to get any easier. As a town we face numerous challenges and we will take them one-by-one and get through them, we have to; hey, East Fishkill is our home.
