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The following letter ran in the December 21, 2001 issue of the Daily Messenger and is reprinted here with permission.

LETTERS TO THE COMMUNITY

Victor board ignores residents' concerns

During the course of the Victor Planning Board meeting Dec. 18 and specifically as to where the proceedings related to the town house application renewed by Pioneer Corporation, the attending members of the public were once again reminded that the ship of state which is the town of Victor Planning Board is run in accordance with the rules scripted and controlled rigidly by Chairman Hart and other individuals who probably prefer to remain unilluminated by the light of public scrutiny.

The town attorney, Mr. J.H. Morris, I am sorry to say, willingly danced to the chairman's direction by producing a resolution directed at gaining approval of a "reasonably similar" decision by the members of the board.

The resolution itself was replete with obfuscation and irrelevancy and, when it did briefly address the central issue of density, affirmed the much-contested figure of 154 units allowable for this development almost in passing.

Does Chairman Hart read and, more importantly, understand the material that has been submitted to the board on this subject on a number of occasions over the last two years and most recently the Dec. 12 letter from the Drumlins Concerned Citizens group?

In particular, the critique directed specifically at the methodology (or should I say, lack thereof) used in support of Mr. Morris's reasoning in arriving at the figure of 154, is written to be clear enough to be easily comprehended by almost any high-school graduate.

Mr. Morris may be skillful in the practices of the law, but his appreciation of the principles of logic allied with a correct arithmetical manipulation of numbers leaves much to be desired. The town's resolution #148 is worth reiterating, that they did formally approve "slightly more" than 2.1 units per acre" and it follows from this that the developer should only be empowered to build 118 units on that 54.72-acre parcel of land.

Frankly, I must say that I find it hard to believe that some of the board members do not fully appreciate what has been said and written in opposition to this project.

Which brings us to the realm of pure speculation – can it possibly be that Mr. Hart and/or others in town management who may share his views, have a hidden agenda that categorically excludes the possibility of taking the opinions and reasonable wishes of local residents into account on a matter as vital to us as this?

It should be needless for me to repeat the obvious – that board members serve as the servants of residents and the public at large and are expected to discharge that function in an impartial and responsible manner. Apart from objections voiced by two members, swiftly damped by the chairman, I saw little evidence of that sense of accountability.

The closing phrase of the Pledge of Allegiance, declaimed prior to all of our meetings, "justice for all," seems to ring somewhat hollowly in consequence.

William F. Flockhart
Wellington Drive
Victor

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