October 12th: Electeds Hold Rally To Bring Smithtown Sewage To Kings Park

Smithtown’s elected officials have two problems vision and transparency:Do they really want you to know?

Let’s start with transparency:Do they really want you to know?

Transparency is government’s obligation to share information with citizens that is needed for them to make informed decisions and hold officials accountable for the people’s business

Smithtown Supervisor Ed WehrheimOn Tuesday, October 12th Town Board members along with other elected officials, representatives from selected community organizations, school board superintendents and others will hold a press conference announcing their support for Supervisor Wehrheim’s proposal to bring the Smithtown business district’s sewage into Kings Park to be treated and pumped into open sewer drainage basins.  These basins will be located at a facility that is currently owned by NYS and surrounded by the Nissequogue River State Park and in close proximity to some residences. 

That’s the short version! But I am not an expert and Kings Park residents are entitled to hear the plan and have the opportunity to question the experts and the proponents of the plan.

Smithtown Matters reached out to some Kings Park residents to ask what they knew of the proposal.

“Why haven’t I heard about this before?” Why would we take Smithtown’s poop (paraphrasing)? These are two questions asked by Kings Park residents.  Will it smell? Why is it by my house? Isn’t that near a Kings Park school (San Remo school)? Why not put it in Smithtown?”  Were also questions residents and taxpayers in Kings Park want to have answered before Supervisor Wehrheim moves forward with his proposal.

The Kings Park community is entitled to know what is happening in their backyard. And yet, not one elected official has bothered to reach out to them. There have been no mailers going to houses, there have been no phone calls, no interactions whatsoever.  Nothing is posted on school district, civic association, or chamber websites.

Where did the authority to represent the community come from? How many members do each of these organizations have that they get to represent the whole community? No transparency in how and when two school superintendents made their decision to lend their support to this proposal. Was it discussed at a school board meeting? There’s no mention of a discussion to support the proposal on the Kings Park or Smithtown district’s website. 

How do elected officials not tell their constituents, their voters and taxpayers about their plan to support a proposal that may impact on property values? 

Not informing the public is wrong.  Not allowing residents to have a say makes a mockery of the concept of Kings Park’s informed voter. The lack of transparency casts a pall over the sewer project and the people who support it.

Supervisor Ed Wehrheim has a resposiblity to get information about his plan to the public. Sending an email blast is not acceptable. Many residents are not receiving town emails and as far as I know there have not been any emails from the town about this proposal. Saying mailings are too expensive is ridiculous, an $8 million road in St. James, a $7 million ballpark in Commack is evidence that the town can afford mailings! 

Whether they support or reject the proposal, Kings Park residents are entitled to know what their electeds are planning for them before it’s a done deal.

Transparency is government’s obligation to share information with citizens that is needed for them to make informed decisions and hold officials accountable for the people’s business. Smithtown residents deserve better than they are getting.

Pat

Next: Smithtown’s Vision Problem

Opinion - America Under Siege

America Under Siege

By Elaine Turley

America was irrevocably changed on January 6, 2021 in ways that will become clearer once we are able to take a collective breath and recover from the shock of the violence on our government.  Make no mistake – this was unlawful violence perpetrated by an angry mob opposed to the rule of law that governs our democracy. 

This violence was not an act of civil disobedience designed to right a wrong committed by our government or legal system - it was mob violence in support of an individual who has convinced American citizens to violently fight for his personal interpretation of the law rather than the law as determined by elected and appointed officials from every state and the federal government as well as over sixty courts, including the highest court of the land, the Supreme Court of the United States of America.  

The violent uprising of January 6^th was inspired not only by the man who is refusing to accept the constitutional and statutory authority by which our democracy elects the officials who will represent our citizens, it has been promoted by all those elected officials who have encouraged American citizens to defy the laws of our nation.  Town and state leaders who enact and enforce laws to protect the public, such as the requirement to fence in a pool so our neighbors’ children don’t drown, but encourage our citizens to defy laws to protect our public from disease and pretend they are doing so in the name of liberty.  Officials elected to Congress who brazenly violate their oath of office by voting to overturn elections by the American people which have been investigated and upheld by officials and courts throughout this nation.  And ordinary Americans who engage in twisted logic to find any means possible to support an individual who has proven time and again that he is ignorant of and disdains our American laws and values.  

I fear for the future of our country.  It is not the threats of civil war and continued violence being promoted by the far right terrorists who stormed our capital yesterday that I fear most.  I fear the neighbors near and far who continue to support lawlessness and subversion.  I fear most those who seem to truly believe they are supporting American laws and values and will continue to do so unless true leaders emerge to fight this scourge.  But until then I am left fearing and despising neighbors and friends who I no longer trust to understand what my country truly represents.  Neighbors who no longer uphold and defend a legal system designed to protect and defend the United States of America and its people.  

Elaine Turley is an attorney who lives in Smithtown with her husband and family.  She is the former chairperson of the Smithtown Democratic Committee.