The Unborn Undead Water District Five of Ulysses, New York
A big work of chalk graffiti on the route 96 bridge crossing over Taughannock Creek seen today declared, “Keep Water District Five Alive”.
That’s an odd rallying cry for the small number of people in Ulysses who had been dedicated Water District Five supporters. It’s odd, because Water District Five never has been alive.
Water District Five has been nothing but a series of proposals, without the backing of the our elected representative government. A few individual politicians supported one or the other of these proposals, but never was a Water District Five proposal passed all the way through the village and town boards in such a way that the project was made “alive”.
Water District Five never had enough support to make it truly come into being. If anything, you might call it a legislative embryo – an unborn thing produced by strange fertilizations of anti-regulation ideologues and opportunistic landowners.
Or, given the increasingly grotesque permutations that Water District 5 went through as that small group of die-hard supporters tried to raise it from the dead, you might call Water District 5 a legislative zombie. So, although Water District Five was never truly alive, it certainly could be regarded as a member of the undead.
Keep Water District Five alive? When I see a slogan like that, I don’t get angry so much as sad for the person who went through the effort to write it out. The person who wrote that message had been fed a bunch of hopes and dreams by people who hyped the non-existent project up to such proportions that the graffiti artist had really come to believe that it was anything other than pipe dreams.
Here’s a more interesting question. If that chalk said “IMPEACH BUSH” do you think it would be down by now? The WD5 message isn’t.
Yes
water district five never saw the light of day. it was never presented to the people which would have paid for it by people who seem to want to build a barbie-doll town similar to Cazenovia or Skaneateles without consulting what people really wanted. The so called survey is proposed by people opposed to development of any kind. The water committee is composed of hand picked people who have only one point of view so what do you suppose will be the result of that fiasco? More fiasco.
the only hope is to get people in the town back interested in the towns welfare rather than their own barbie doll approach to what they think civilization should look like.
The most appealing thing about Trumansburg has always been a variety of approaches and a town built by real people not those pretentious persons of the burbs we have in office now. There was nothing phony about Trumansburg a few years ago. there was even a pig farm in town … amusing politics back then. Never the less it was genuine. Not aspiring to the phoniness of a pretentious village from some fairy tale. It was a geniuine town built by real working people with all the good the bad and the ugly that realness consists of. perhaps in that town there might have been sidewalks where they are actually needed for safety of children so they could actually walk to schools and even (god forbid) get some natural exercise. and not rely so heavily on fossil fuels to get to school. They would be healthier and safer with progress like that but we have chosen to elect the hollowed out persons who think that everything that matters is appearance
image not substance. Bring back the old board members who actually live in Trumansburg and are not just passing through. One of my favorite quotes recently is : “If good people don’t run, others will” That seems to be what we have here in Ulysses and Village officials today.
The fire whistle is another thing that lends charm to the village
why should some transient make those permanent decisions.. Lets throw the bums out.
Lets not become a plastic town of phoniness lets keep it real please.
Here’s more from that Loser Barry who implies that people who weren’t born here don’t have the right to be involved in local politics. “just passing through” indeed. I guess to Barry, diversity consisted of white rednecks who wore different colored plad shirts. Thankfully, his kind are dying out faster than they are being replaced.
hey X
the x user is back and refuses to identify himself.
X keep the faith boy you gotta try some new drugs
maybe the color of the stuff is throwing you off. Is X red or blue? is that Xtacy or how is iot spelled? People who are committed to the town are the ones who should make lasting decisions not those who are just passing through. Pay attention Xman. I think a real town is better than the plastic, same, barbie-doll towns like those cutesy little places mentioned earlier. bring back the fire whistle. It gives the place character. People who actually live here are more qualified to decide than those just passing through on their way to stardom. Trumansburg is cool because of that t-shirt a suit diversity
too mach of anything is damaging. Who is X?