Hello Sweeney Payne,
Thank you for the lengthy narrative on how your group is more forthcoming with the honest truths of North Tonawanda than the shady characters that continue to dominate elections. I felt the urge to whistle Yankee Doodle as I read it.
To hear you tell it, the Sweeneys, Paynes, Vandervoorts, & Goundrys pretty much ran the place for generations of cash driven nepotism – and that was OK? I don't know if that could happen amidst the conditions of transparency with which your group claims to associate yourselves. Those well to do families certainly didn't have to deal with nuisance, anonymous SoundOffs complaining about them buying up all the land.
I'll play the name game though. I'm just one person that wanted to resist the baseless, long-winded, stir-the-pot antics that your group portrays as fact. I was impressed with the sophisticated "Sweeney Payne" pseudonym that you chose, at first not knowing that it represented a whole group of malcontents. Thurston Howell III was already taken and not so North Tonawanda as yours, so I chose "Remington Nash" with which to counterpoint. I claim no personal adherence to either gentlemen's' strength of character, only that they were real.
Mr. Remington was a swell guy that made a nice buck manufacturing awesome typewriters & office stuff in North Tonawanda. He had a great relationship with Messrs. Rand & Sperry at the plant until Mr. Sperry had his name thrown off the sign out front, in favor of Sperry-Rand. In the end, Remington still came out on top by having a lofty tavern and a NT street named after him.
Nash Road or "Nash's Path" was said to be named for W. H. Nash, an early settler, farmer, carpenter and joiner, whose farm was situated on what today is Errick Road in the Town of Wheatfield. He too was a nice guy by all accounts. I am taking the liberty to assume that Mr. Nash used the path to buy supplies and chase women in North Tonawanda.
In all seriousness though, I doubt that any of the aforementioned forefathers are spinning in their graves due to recent events, or that they would find that either of our columns is really necessary.
Whoever you are, I believe that it would help your cause to get to your point quicker and knock off the innuendos that tend to poison any legit issues you might have. People have a hard enough time making the effort to attend Council meetings, without having to listen to the same endless, gadfly crap time after time! Present a well-researched, backed up by a professional plan. Listen when an authority tells you why they cannot do what you ask, or why they are doing it differently.
I'll tell you what! If I were running for an elected office, I would decline your support if it involved the usual fact less, no-plan-of-your-own, whine about your opponent's Republican meanness, drivel. How are YOU going to get things done better?
Your accusations are hardly transparent. I view them as an unwarranted collection of paranoid, veiled threats to expose "something". But what? Exactly who refused to meet with you? When? About What? Maybe if you tell us, the representatives could explain why your stroke of genius was not the best choice for the community.
If you and your group are truly the "silent majority" that is continually victimized by the "ruling clique", I take that as an indication that not many of you choose to vote. The result of that is that you appear to be a simple minority with a loud, albeit ineffective, voice.
Thanks for hearing me and I hope that you listened.