06/10/09: Blasdell Voters Weigh In on Village Downsizing Study

Original YNN Buffalo Air Date: 06/10/09
“It’s a small village, what do we need all that baggage for,” asked Blasdell voter Richard Burke. He says he voted in favor of a referendum looking to study ways to downsize the village.
“This is small. This is a mile square,” said Blasdell’s Richard Burke who objects to the study. He says he voted the measure down, because there’s no need to change.
“We’ve lived here all our lives. I think the workers in Blasdell are really great. I don’t think we’d get the same thing through the town,” said voter Raymond Scheffler.
Blasdell has three referendums on the ballot intended to downsize village resources. The first calls for an independent study to determine ways to dissolve the village.
“What services will be continued? What services will be terminated? what is the mechanism that’s going to be used to provide those services,” said Blasdell Village Administrator Janet Plarr.
Blasdell leaders say there are a lot of questions to be answered. Their proposed study will cost no more than $200,000. Opponents say taxpayers shouldn’t spend a dime.
“Who’s going to foot that? It falls on the village residents and that just means higher taxes, cause you gotta pay for it somehow,” said former Blasdell village trustee Dan Kij.
“These things have been studied to death,” said government consolidation advocate Kevin Gaughn.
It’s the threat of spending money to study government consolidation that Gaughn believes can sabotage efforts to shrink government.
“There hasn’t been an in depth ‘dissolution study.’ Mr. Gaughn has done a study by which no one been given the criteria that he used,” Villiag Administrator Plarr.
Gaughn said the government used to pay for the studies. But he’s been studying them for communities for free, and helped others in Erie County force consolidation votes by going around town boards.
The architect behind the downsizing votes that passed in Evans and West Seneca believes Blasdell’s ripe for change.
“It’s been 50 years now. 50-years since the steel industry collapsed, which was the basic foundation of the economy in Blasdell, and not one politician and one government has been able to do anything to bring any growth, hope, jobs or opportunity for anyone,” added Gaughn.
There are three referendums on the ballot. Blasdell leaders say the decision to dissolve village resources, and just how it should be handled is in the hands of the voters.