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Stanch the bleeding ...

Note: The following is another in a series of columns on subjects of a philosophical, ethical or practical nature by a Schuyler County resident who prefers to go by the nom de plume of A. Moralis -- a reference to what the writer sees as the lack of a moral compass in the world during this rapidly changing Age of the Internet.

By A. Moralis

The Village of Watkins Glen recently made public the results of the Watkins Glen Police Consolidation Study. However, attempting to find this report on the Watkins Glen Village website was very difficult. After 20 minutes of searching, it was finally located. Perhaps the person who posted this did not want the contents easily found?

If you have not yet had an opportunity to read the study, you may want to do so. It is an eye-opener AND a jaw-dropper. (For the Baseline Report, click here. For the Options Report, click here.)

Of concern:

1. An unnamed spokesperson in the Watkins Glen School District is quoted in the report as saying that the Watkins Glen Village Police-provided School Resource Officer (SRO) is “a 150 percent improvement" over the prior program with the New York State Police. Did this official mean to say it is an improvement because the current officer is not shared with another school district? Initially the State Police SRO was shared between two districts (Watkins Glen and Odessa-Montour) and was grant funded. The SRO is now solely at the Watkins Glen campus. Upon speaking with both past and present students and staff at Watkins, I have found that they long for the days of the trooper -- a man who, they said, was highly visible in the hallways and who occasionally lectured in classes, coached and, noted one longtime teacher, "was a daily part of the school community. The kids responded to him." The other issue is that the village taxpayers are contributing $25,000 toward the current SRO's salary. I would like to know why the village of Watkins Glen is the only one contributing when students who attend the school are also from Reading Center, Burdett and Hector.

2. The 11 p.m. to 7 a.m. village officer answered relatively few calls between the hours of 2 a.m. and 7 a.m. -- often going several days at a time without any calls during that time frame. Why is this individual working a full-time job when there are so few calls? Please do not argue that the night patrolman caught a burglar a year or so ago because he could get to the crime scene quickly. If the Watkins Glen Village Police were to merge with the Schuyler County Sheriff’s Department, I am sure the Sheriff would know where to schedule police so calls could be answered in a timely manner.

3. The number one service the village police provides is the recovery of keys from locked cars. The number one service the Schuyler County Sheriff contends with is harassment. Now getting keys out of a locked vehicle is a wonderful service, but is it worth the village of Watkins Glen police officers getting paid 20% more than the Schuyler County Sheriff's Department personnel ….along the entire pay scale?

4. The total operating expense for the village police department is $517,482 a year, which is 21% of the general-fund budget for the village. It costs $1,418 dollars a day to operate the department. Expensive, huh?

5. Why are there two New York State Police officers available during the day, evening, and night shifts who are not being utilized in the village? We are paying for yet another layer of police protection and not using them. Are three layers of police really needed? Perhaps at times the answer is yes, but special events and NASCAR are covered by special part-time deputies. I am not discrediting the job that the officers do, but I do feel that the village taxpayers can be provided tax relief and have their safety maintained by merging with the Schuyler County Sheriff's Office.

Now before you go and think "Well, this is just a Republican/Conservative who is out to destroy something good," please read on.

The May 29, 2013 Watkins Review and Express has a nice letter of concern to the editor from Mr. Harold Brown about the condition of the village streets. He says the villages roads are deplorable in some spots and he wonders why, with all the revenue taken in during the summer, the roads are in such poor shape.

Maybe if less money was spent on duplicating police services, and on paying astronomical police salaries and benefits packages, our village streets could be in better shape. Please go out for a walk in the village and you will see that every village street contains potholes and crumbling curbs, which supports Mr. Brown’s observations. Merging police departments would free up funds that should be spent on the village's aged infrastructure -- imperative for future growth and tourism.

Another article relating to taxes in that same issue of the Review and Express is by Larry Wilson, who points out that Walmart and Inergy Midstream have been fighting their property assessments. Inergy Midstream recently won a reduction, though not as large as it had hoped for. What reductions mean is that village property owners will be picking up the loss of tax revenue by seeing their property taxes increase. Do you really want to pay more taxes to cover the ones big business does not? Can you afford to? Our community has many elderly on fixed incomes, and if their property taxes continue to increase, they may end up losing their homes.

*****

How much longer can we, the taxpayers of the village, afford to continue to pay big salaries and benefit packages to the police? Do you have any idea how the Affordable Health Care Act will affect your taxes? (I do not, but I have a feeling the government’s new words for tax will be surcharge, supplement, and add-on.) Most employers will not be exempt from this, including the village of Watkins Glen, and the question of how to pay for the Affordable Health Care Act remains.

Lastly is a potentially tempestuous issue: a fear of police intimidation by those who want to speak up in favor of dissolution or consolidation. This is a difficult subject to measure -- for bullying can take many subjective forms, and can be easily denied. That's one reason why bullyism has had such a long shelf life.

And counter to that, the fear of something that has not yet happened could be groundless.

Nonetheless, some residents have expressed the fear -- which prompts the cautionary plea that we all should be respectful of the rights of others. We need to respect the person in authority, who needs in turn to be respectful of the individuals who pay his or her salary.

*****

This entire subject of consolidation is about continuing to be a viable community, which we will not be if the old habits of tax-and-spend continue.

To stanch the bleeding, complete consolidation of the Watkins Glen Village Police Department into the Schuyler County Sheriff’s Department is needed, with continued support of the State Police. Sheriff Bill Yessman has been quoted as saying that he could absorb the village department into his own for a cost that is less than what the village taxpayers are paying. Yes, this may mean a small increase in county taxes, but overall it would be a cost savings, and it would benefit everyone. The full-time police officers would have their jobs, the village taxpayers would have needed tax relief, and the citizens of Watkins Glen would continue to benefit from experienced officers. I say we need to let Sheriff Yessman try.

As he also said: In a time of need, does it really matter what color the police car is?

**********

Previous A. Moralis columns:

The first one is here.
The second one is here.
The third one is here.
The fourth one is here.
The fifth one is here.
The sixth one is here.
The seventh one is here.
The eighth one is here.
The ninth one is here.
The 10th one is here.
The 11th one is here.
The 12th one is here.
The 13th one is here.
The 14th one is here.

 

© The Odessa File 2013
Charles Haeffner
P.O. Box 365
Odessa, New York 14869

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