January 26, 2008, 6:45 pm
I’m happy to announce that the Sidney Democratic Committee will convene its next public meeting in its Conversations On … series on February 14, 2008 at the Sidney Memorial Library Community Room at 7 p.m.
This time around, the topic of conversation will be economic and community development. We will be joined by Kevin McLaughlin of the governor’s Office of Upstate Economic Development. I am also hoping that a member of Congresswoman Gillibrand’s staff will be able to attend, as well as local businesspersons, aspiring entrepreneurs and elected officials.
Look for more information about the meeting in the local media (Tri-Town News, Daily Star, WCDO Radio) in the near future. Hope you can come and take part in the conversation.
January 10, 2008, 11:26 am
We had our monthly meeting yesterday and spent some time talking about how we can help Congresswoman Gillibrand make the connections she needs to make in the community to do her job in Washington.
After all, if she is going to represent us on Capitol Hill, she needs to know what is going on with us here. And, trust me, it is fatally easy to lose touch once you get inside the Beltway if you don’t take the time and trouble to make those connections early on.
We also talked a bit about what is happening to Main Street. It’s looking like somebody somewhere made some decisions to let us get overrun with big box outfits to chase our local merchants off Main Street in the name of economic development. Of course, all this was done behind closed doors and without any input from those of us who live here.
Do you want a Walgreens or a giant Rite Aid (with drive-through pharmacy) on Main Street?
For that matter, why is anybody building drive-through anythings when the price of gas is $3.30 a gallon? Shouldn’t our leaders be encouraging us to walk or ride bikes, and making infrastructure building decisions to make it easier for us to do that?
On another note, there will be a presidential candidate forum held at SUNY Delhi on January 31st at 7 p.m. No, of course the actual candidates won’t be there (or if any of them do show up, I for one will be amazed), but campaign representatives will be there to answer questions and help New Yorkers decide how to vote on February 5th.
The next meeting of the Sidney Democratic Committee will take place on February 13, 2008, where we will hopefully finalize plans for our next installment of our Community Conversations.