Published: April 04, 2008 09:08 pm            

SOUND OFF: Published April 7

The Gilmore Avenue neighborhood should be extra vigilant at all times, not just at school time, especially because a random sick psychopath doesn't know when homes are abandoned. It takes a close eye to notice abandoned homes, especially when the remains of the home are still there. How else could one smart child tie blankets together for safety?

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Has anyone bothered to look at the two unique combination fire departments we have in Western New York, the Twin Cities. The taxpayers in these two communities get the best of both worlds. An immediate response from the 24/7 on-duty paid firefighters to any emergency whether it be daytime or evenings. With a strong volunteer response when appropriate. Roughly 10 percent of your property taxes pay for this wonderful service that both cities provide to their residents. Now what about Amherst or Town of Tonawanda, the same 10 percent of your taxes pays for an all-volunteer response, with longer response during daytime hours and holidays. Sure they have plans in place to augment each fire company’s manpower shortages. But as a taxpayer why should I have to wait? Are the towns truly saving money? I think not. How about a county-wide combination fire department? We get the best of both worlds. Long traditions will be maintained, and most importantly the people will get the immediate response of all equipment, not just chiefs’ vehicles responding, they so deserve and pay for. What do you think Western New York?

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Go to www.familywatchdog.us/search.asp When you visit this site you can enter your address and a map will pop up with your house as a small icon of a house. There will be red, blue and green dots surrounding your entire neighborhood. When you click on these dots a picture of a criminal will appear with his or her home address and the description of the crime he or she has committed.

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I see the NT schools are going to lay off some workers to reduce the school budget. I know one way of saving money, fire the person and supervisor who were in charge of plowing the snow around Ohio Street school. The person who plowed the snow did a fine job of digging up the lawn to the point that there are piles of sod and dirt making the sidewalks mud covered. I see that someone put straw over some of the areas. Now I wonder how much that cost the taxpayers. Then we will have to pay someone to fix the lawn, tax dollars well be spent. It really makes sense to me use a 5-foot plow to plow a 3-foot walk.

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The practice of politicians putting their names on everything from municipal signs to park signs to garbage trucks is a waste of taxpayer money. When they are campaigning they all claim fiscal responsibility but this is bad leadership. I wonder how much did it cost the Town of Tonawanda to put their new supervisor’s name on everything? What about the new county executive? Next the elected officials in Albany will start sending out newsletters at taxpayer expense bragging about what a great job they are doing. If you really want to start practicing fiscal responsibility walk the walk first. Leadership is by example not word.

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