Miner Points…

My duties here at the Gazette include covering environmental issues of all sorts — and believe me I could spend all my time writing about the environment in Niagara Falls.

But, alas, I wonder if our readers feel the same way. For instance, you could make a strong argument that the city’s most significant issue is its myriad brownfields, which can be found in every corner of every neighborhood. These former industrial sites clog up potential taxable land and prevent reuse but they also include local, state and federal incentives for development.

But every time I write about the issue, it’s met with a collective yawn. Why is that? Is it simply too boring? Is there insufficient understanding of what a brownfield  is?

I assume the answer is a little of both. It doesn’t have the immediacy of a story involving City Hall politics or downtown developers nor the shock value of crime and courts stories (we have a few of those, don’t we?).

But it would be nice if people got the point. The city needs new jobs, and therefore new businesses, and the only new commercial development in the city is going to have to take place on old factory sites with spotty histories.

http://www.niagara-gazette.com/archivesearch/local_story_128204320.html

Talk about fascinating: Sitting across from Heinrich Willert, an officer in the German Luftwaffe during World War II who was captured and eventually held at Fort Niagara until the war was over, was a great experience. Willert wanted to stay in America after the war was over, but he was sent back to Germany, where he was forced to stay for decades on the Soviet-controlled side of the Berlin Wall.

Finally, more than sixty years later, Willert traveled back to the United States with the help of his grandson, who also lives in Germany but went to high school in Connecticut and took college courses in Texas — a trip Willert said he’s always wanted to take

It was myself, Gretchen Duling and her husband Dennis, a Canisius College professor and several other interested people who sat and listened Wednesday as Willert recounted his experiences at the Dulings’ riverfront home in Youngstown. At times, Willert struggled understanding questions in English, but generally speaking his account of his experiences were remarkably lucid and captivating.

Later in the interview, you could feel the collective focus of the room on Willert as he described his confrontation with a farmer under whom he was working on the day in May 1945 when Germany surrendered. The two made up and ate a meal together. Afterward, the farmer brought Willert a cigarette and the two smoked together — a German prisoner of war headed back to the destruction of post-World War II Europe and an American farmer probably set to reap the rewards of his country’s newfound position of power and responsibility in the world. It must have been a remarkable scene.

For such a small village, Youngstown has its share of active residents who know where to go to make their voices heard. Take, for example, last Thursday’s board meeting. Nearly the entire population of East Oak Terrace showed up to protest the lack of progress they see in a nearby development:

http://www.niagara-gazette.com/archivesearch/local_story_126180534.html

The village doesn’t have much power in this case, other than withholding building permits (which would seem counterproductive) or levying some minor fines. And the Finkbeiners seem earnest in their desire to eventually finish the project. Still, it’s nice to see people getting active and engaging their public officials in the things that affect them.

http://www.niagara-gazette.com/archivesearch/local_story_119221511.html

http://www.niagara-gazette.com/archivesearch/local_story_120204730.htm

Actually, it was anything but that. As a reporter, I’ve sporadically heard about the mutual dislike between Fred Newlin and George Maziarz since I joined the Gazette almost a year ago. But I hear a lot of stuff that probably isn’t true.

This is clearly true. Maziarz was ostensibly at the meeting on behalf of volunteer fire companies who contacted him in an attempt to get a slice of the relicensing settlement — which they say they were promised. But he also clearly wasn’t interested in playing nice with Newlin. For some brief moments, the vague possibility of intervention by police seemed like it was creeping close to becoming a reality.

There’s a lot of ways to approach this meeting and what it means. I’m interested in your take.

Budget votes are due before the end of April for New York state villages. Lewiston votes on its spending plan today and Youngstown may approve theirs at a 4 p.m. meeting next Monday, April 28 at Village Hall. If my past experience at these meetings is any indication, attendance and feedback afterward will be sparse. Are you going to the meeting?

Hi. This is our blog. By “us”, I mean me and anybody interested in Lewiston, Porter, Youngstown and the New York Power Authority. Those are my beats at the Niagara Gazette and that’s what we’ll be discussing here, hopefully on a regular basis. Beyond that, the format will be pretty fluid. I’ll try to update you on the happenings I come across during the week but I’m also interested in having substantive discussions on the issues as you see them. What’s it like to live in the sometimes suburban, sometimes rural municipalities north of Niagara Falls? Is there a collective set of issues that really matter to you, the way there often are for city-dwellers? Or is it simply a place to live and not be bothered while you work, raise a family and pursue your own, personal interests?

I’m looking forward to finding out.