Lewiston Civic Center Entitlement Plan Goes Down to Blessed Defeat

The $8M Lewiston civic center project was voted down by a 2-to-1 margin by residents today. The final tally was 673 for, 1,312 against.

A pretty smart vote that.

In rejecting the extravagant project, residents decided to reject taxpayers subsidizing sports training for kids in the wealthiest village in Niagara County and other enterprises.

As one resident, Thomas J. Machmer said, "It is not the responsibility of the public to fund your family life."

Facilities like this Civic Center are expensive to operate. Not mentioned in the proposal, but widely circulated around town was that the taxpayers would have to fund a great deal of it. It was not as represented a project entirely paid for by NYPA Greenway funds that were apparently burning a hole in Lewiston officials pockets, so eager were they to spend the next 40 years of it.

As Machmer wrote of the genesis of the project: "It is a welfare mentality, born and bred from the socialist thinking that has overtaken this country and destroyed self sufficiency and self pride. It is a mental disorder as the renowned Dr. Michael Savage has often said. America has developed a 'you owe us' attitude, pushed by the media and irresponsible politicians whose interest is that of re-election and power."

The defeat of this Civic Center proposal is in a small way, a vote to re-establish American values of individualism and pride.