When Will The Trumansburg Water District 5 Meeting Be?
Last summer’s meeting about Water District 5 seems like a long time ago now, but I can still remember the way that so many residents felt shut out from having their voices heard fairly at that meeting.
At the time, Ulysses Supervisor Doug Austic responded to their complaints by promising that he would organize a meeting at which Trumansburg residents would be allowed to speak, and ask questions of Austic and the rest of the Town Board about Water District 5. It was a fair offer. After all, Doug Austic is supposed to be working on behalf of all of the Town of Ulysses, including Trumansburg.
Mr. Austic never followed through. He never gave us that meeting.
It’s not too late, Mr. Austic. You still want Water District 5. Please, organize that meeting you promised us.
Funny you should mention that, Jonathan. I actually tried to ask about that at the last Town Board meeting, but Austic interrupted and cut me off and told me that I got to speak at the last meeting (quite true, I did– but, it was very late by then, and a lot of people, including a lot of town residents who had signed up to speak on index cards) had gone home already, not having gotten that opportunity). He did not indicate that there was going to be another meeting coming up for people who did not live “in the water district” as defined…. but, I don’t know if that means there will be one where Village residents will be allowed to speak, or not. Definitely seemed like we outside the defined district in the Town would not get a chance of a hearing.
Krys Cail,
I liked your idea about having a professional planner study and make recommendations to the town and village about the optimal solutions. Why don’t you investigate who would be a logical choice for the job, someone who has done a good job for other communities, and then email your recommendations to this blog and all the members of the town and village governments. Perhaps the town and village could share the cost of the study.
There should have been and should still be a continuing series of meetings starting with the distribution of the proposed plan sent to those in the district only to see if there was any interest at all. That has been prohibited time and aghain by this Board. At least then they would have some Idea of the facts and not some twisted misinformation that those three board memebers published in the papers. those meeting were necessary two years ago and this board refused to allow that also.
No facts
Only fears.
And at meetings only misinformed questions becasue they were too busy or too lazy to learn about the actual plan as such.
I witnessed many of those so called board meetings.
Only thing in the mnedia has been and continues to be misinformation and refusing to allow Mr. Austic to distribute info to those persons in the proposed water district.
Professionalk planners are employed by B & L
I sent their website in a previous post. Not know what details about the proceedure in the proposal. Obviopus next step would be more information and The Map Plan and Report. Get more facts not more nonsense.
Barry,
Have Lucia Tyler, Roxanne Marino and Don Ellis done anything to stop an informational meeting organized by the board about Water District 5 in Trumansburg?
Not that I know of. As far as I know, Doug Austic made the promise that the meeting would take place, and no one on the board moved to stop it. Maybe I’m missing something, but it seems that it was Mr. Austic’s decision not to hold the promised informational meeting.
Jon
Yes they have by confusing the issues with non facts and fears which have been published in the paper while gagging Mr. Austic and preventing him from getting the factual information of what the proposed water district actually is supposed to be. It should first be presented to the poeple on the line and then to the town at large. Snice the people on the line have to pay the lion’s share of the costs involved. they hjave blocked factual information from the public and at athe saem time published non factual fear mongering stories to discourage and consideration of the plan as is without wever allowing the public to see what the plan actually is. There should have been meetings form the beginning on this and those three did not want them to do it without adding maximum confusion to the mix and including all sorts of twisted ideas of what the water district would do and how unfair it is and how much it was designed for Doug’s friends. But they are afraid to vote it down and get rid of the whole thing or to vote for the map plan and report. yes they have put obstacles in the way of factual knowledge getting to the public from the get go and continue to do so. LEts actually see the plan sent out to those in the proposed district and start from there. That has been my only gripe from the start. The dishonesty and the twisting of info for their own ends is what has bothered me. I reallty don’t care much about the awater one way or antohther right now
it is just a logical step for the town to work on it. the Government is coming and it won’t be pretty.
We will have as much choice as we do about post office buildings. None. They will dictate where it will be and what it will be. Send out the info as is and see what people actually want to do don’t keep hiding the plan.
Rats
no spell checker again previous.
So, no, Don Ellis, Roxanne Marino and Lucia Tyler have not tried to prevent the informational meeting that Doug Austic promised to the residents of Trumansburg. It’s just that Mr. Austic has decided not to keep his word.
If I’m understanding you correctly, Don Ellis, Roxanne Marino, and Lucia Tyler are seeking to get a more complete assessment of Water District 5 to the people of Ulysses, and you don’t trust parts of that assessment. Whether you trust it or not is a separate matter. It just doesn’t seem at all accurate to say that these three board members are trying to prevent the public from getting information about the Water District. In fact, what seems to infuriate you, Barry, is that they are trying to get out more information than what you’d like.
Sending out Mr. Austic’s “information” “as is” is leaving the job incomplete and circumventing the proper authority of the entire board.
Nope, it is that they refuse to allow the oublic to see the information that there is now so they have no idea what is proposed. The r=three are simply stalling. I am not afraid of any of the information they pretend to find but I would like to start with facts of what is proposed.
So YES the three do prevent the pubnlic from seeing tha actual proposal. And They have not allowed Austic to present nmmeings either. They have been adamant to prevent such meetings unless they can control the presentation. Hence the meeing for maximum confusion last summer by introducing people not in the district and wasting time with their questions to the exclusion of those in the district.
The facts are still not presented to the public in the form of the actual proposal.
The three want to twist info before they will allow a meeting and the one that did happen was almost like pulling hen’s teeth.
So yes, in effect they continue to prevent public knowledge of facts as they are now. or as they were then for that matter. The infuriating part is that the information they send out is not factual but conjecture and fears and bogus and imaginary but not the facts. of the district which is where it shoiuld have stared over a year ago. They have succeeded in accomplishing no progress. This from the “Progressive” Party or so we thought when we mistakenly (as it turns out) elected them.
They ahve not allowed an informational meeting unless they can determine to audience foist and publish misinformation.
Same tactics used in federal government. I guess it is acceptable in all politics now to use bogus information to twist the presentation.
Creates much dissension and argument but not much positive progress only a mess.
oh yes
forgot
to the cornell students that were present the other night at the meeting. Yes pretty much it is always like that ever since ellis morino and tyler have been on the board. Stupid questions they should have the answers to before meeings and arguments. Pretty much always like that now.
Barry, I was at that meeting last summer right up until the end, and what you’re saying is a distortion of what took place.
At that meeting, people in the proposed district were given as much time as they wanted to speak. Doug Austic tried to prevent others from speaking at all.
that was one meeting when there should have been one every week for months until the issues were worked out. those meeting wer not wanted by the three board members.
That one meeting practically took an act of congress to force through and then it was cluttered with misinformation proffered by the three aforementioned members. No one at that meeting had any information unless they were some of those I contacted and gave the map to and the preliminary report synopsis in order to have them voice an opinion on the WD5. There were something over 100 people who signed those petitions on the basis of that information. The map and the copy of the cost page and the brief explanation. all those people were in the proposed district
there were a few who were opposed and did not sign to go ahead
but most did . The information without being misinformation to cloud the issues is what needs to be started with. Just what is proposed?
No one knows really Few have read the report or looked at the map. The Board memebers refude to allow the public to see that report so thay can make some informed judgments. That is how to start. It has bbeen two full years of wasted time on this issue. That is what I object to.
Those in the district still have not gotten a copy of the proposal because three board member do not allow it.
They have even gone so far as to try to gag Austic so he cannot even talk about the issue with those involved.
A real misuse of power I would say instead of informing the public of whjat happend they want to and have censored every potential move. Amazing dishonesty but I guess it is commonplace in today’s politics.
In addition those meetings should have been weekly and should be weekly until the issues (the real ones) are worked through. Cannot do that if you never start.
And that is what has been prevented by thsoe three board members’ actions and inactions and ignorance that is persistent in imaginary issues to foil consideration.
The meeting last summer was the thing distorted.
Austic wanted to meet with the people in the proposed district.
When the board would not allow that then he agreed against his better judgment to having a bunch of people in the village attend too.
It didn’t of course work very well because the people in WD5 proposed area could not get through the maze question things. It would be ridiculous to think that one meeting could accomplish all things for the entire town but this one could have done wonders to inform those in WD5 of what was actually proposed without all the fear and embellishments brought by the likes of Krys Cail who pretty much dominated that meeting with a long harangue regarding Doug’s favorites and other nonsense.
So no one got much information and the ploy worked as intended. The meeting was a flop by and large.
Over many meetings people could actually learn things.
Those bored members think they have to be present at all meetings I guess but the information could have been presented to those directly concerned so they understood what was proposed but no one has learned this yet.
The purpose is to obscure and it has worked well so far along with preventing the public from being informed.
Except those of us who have taken time to read over and question the plan itself, (not some imagined idea of the plan) understand it and a couple of us apparently understand it far better than those members.
It is not rocket science really. But water is governed by gravity. Start with that. take the actual proposal to the public now in writing not ina meeting so they can actually look it over and formulate questions on the basis of fact not nonsense.
It is interesting to me that both Jonathan and Barry ultimately agree that there should have been and should be more informational meetings about the water district for the general public.
What they disagree about is whose fault it is that there haven’t been further meetings and whose fault it is that the first meeting was a shambles.
The public information meetings are part of the protocol of advancing toward a water district. You want the residents of a water district to get information because they will be more likely to vote for the district if they know what it is and how much it will cost. After all, they will own it when it is finished.
The village officials sent out a letter to all village residents in advance of the first informational meeting, inviting them to attend a meeting that was originally meant only for residents of the proposed district.
Because the village residents would be financially affected by the district while not actually being part of it, the village officially felt that their constituents were entitled to make inquiries at a public meeting.
There is an undeniable logic to this, but no one in the village government (1) acknowledged that they were horning in on another groups meeting or (2) made any attempt at the meeting to explain that they were piggybacking on an original intent. Rather undiplomatic in my view. And par for the course.
Let’s hope that with new personnel in place on the village side, we see a new approach.
Barry Barry quite contrary
how does your water flow?
Through WD5
with Doug’s shuck and jive,
and all T-burg told to go blow.
THAT’S THE BEST YOU CAN DO WHEN FACED WITH THE TRUTH ABOUT AUSTIC AND THE BORED MEMBERS?
Interesting and annonymous. I shall have to contact Phylogeny and see what she says about this more nonsense.
And when will we see the actual unembellished plan for WD5?
Barry,
The preliminary plan for WD5 is available at the town offices.
I have a nice map from the report that shows where all the proposed pipelines would go. It is superimposed on a USGS topographic base map.
I will inquire to see if this report can be made available electronically. In this day and age, if something is available on line it seems to be treated as if it were unavailable and even “secret”.
Yeesh.
I have the report and the maps
and have tried to get them out to people on WD5. I know what it says. The public is the faction that has no idea what is proposed because the media has only seen and published what the nay sayers are sayinbg nothing about the truth of the matter. I know the info is availablke at the town office. The point is it hasd naever been sent to thoise on the proposed WD5 and so they do not know what the discussion is about. And the Town meetings are such a joke that no one wants to waste time there and they will not be allowed to speak anyway.
so no truth to the public is the trend in WD5.