January 14, 2008

Thank you for giving me the opportunity to speak.  First of all I would like to congratulate  Mr. Barret, Ms Egan and Mr. Byrne on their victory in the recent election. I hope you all have the time and energy to do what is essentially a volunteer job in a manner that will distinguish you as public servants. I believe you won your seats based on legitimate disagreements over certain aspects of the Comprehensive Plan. You have a mandate to rework the comprehensive plan in a fashion that is totally acceptable to all the citizens of Milan, something that is, of course, impossible. On that I wish you luck.  It is also my belief that your constituents, for the most part, do not want unhampered development in this community and that if you do not implement the Zoning provisions of the plan as currently written, you must come up with a rigorous alternative that, once again, pleases everyone.  Good luck on that one too. Should you abandon the work done over the past four or five years altogether, specifically by failing to implement and enforce the Wetlands Protection Law, and keeping the mines out, it will become evident that you have little interest in the fight to keep our community as rural as is feasible.   

It is abundantly clear that the majority of people do not want large scale industrial gravel mining.  On this major issue, you have taken virtually no time to dissapoint those of us who were hoping for something better. The appointment of Morris Associates is an indication that you intend to capitulate to Mr. Doherty and Red Wing, rather than fight to enforce the current law.  Should those trucks start rolling on Academy Hill and Turkey Hill roads your agenda  will be exposed.  Please prove me wrong on this one.

A number of years ago, when the last Republican administration held the keys to Town Hall, I was in the unfortunate position of having to sign on to a law suit to force the town to enforce its own laws.  Someone on my street had bought a parcel of land with the intention of parking his heavy construction equipment on the bottom part of a beautiful meadow, and turning the top into a rodeo, both violations of existing Zoning law.  This is what he told his new neighbors, and he proceeded to rebuild a chicken coop into a warehouse, and park a mobile home on the hill, to our great consternation.   The chicken coop had no building permit, and the mobile home had no septic system.  The Town just looked the other way.  This is how things were done in Milan for many years, and it is part of the reason that that administration was voted out of office.  
So we have had one board that did little to enforce the laws on the books, followed by one that was proactive in creating new ones. Perhaps the Talmage Administration did too much too fast.  But the people of this community are savvy enough - and I do not distinguish between the so called “city” people, or the so called “local” people, an artificial distinction that we can drop now that the political season is over -  the people of this community are savvy enough to know when the government is not taking care of their business. 
Please correct me if I am wrong, but to the best of my knowledge Mr. Barret and Mr. Byrne are newcomers to Milan and do not own property here.   One wonders if your interests differ from those of us who have invested our money and time in this community. I am curious to see how you take on the responsibility of governing the Town and enforcing the law, and wish you the best.

Steven Siegel