Monday, January 28, 2013

Impact Zone? Only If It Impacts The Mayor!

Making an impact

Police, building inspection launching enforcement blitz in the blocks around Washburn and Genesee streets

By Joyce M. Miles
Lockport Union-Sun & Journal
Lockport Union-Sun & Journal — Officials announced the first law enforcement “impact zone” in Lockport on Friday, promising an all-out effort to uproot the criminal element that lurks in the heart of the city.
The impact zone, an area roughly bounded by Transit, Walnut, Erie and High streets, will be the subject of stepped-up police patrolling, unannounced road blocks and a building code enforcement blitz, Mayor Michael Tucker and Lockport Police Chief Lawrence Eggert said.
The Niagara County Sheriff’s Department and New York State Police will be sending patrol cars into the zone routinely as well, spokesmen for those agencies confirmed at a Friday press conference. The city’s state Legislature representatives will look for funding to help the city purchase video cameras that can be placed at key intersections.
“We have a message for the criminals: We may not be a big city ... but that doesn’t mean we’re going to sit here and take it,” Tucker declared. “We want to know who’s in our city (and) if you’re up to no good, we don’t want you here.”
The declaration follows a spate of unusually violent crimes and police encounters with unstable suspects in the past month or so. Officers have responded to two shootings, one Jan. 3 near Walnut and Washburn Streets and another Dec. 24 on Genesee Street.
On Dec. 31, Eggert himself disarmed a knife-wielding woman who stabbed the man that allegedly tried to kill her 7-year-old daughter in lowertown.
Two weeks ago a routine traffic stop on Cottage Street yielded a woman hiding a large quantity of prescription drug pills, a couple chunks of suspected cocaine — and a large butcher knife in the back seat of her vehicle. The woman, described by the patrol officer as “irate” and “acting strangely,” ate some of the cocaine and had to be medically treated for a possible overdose.
On Thursday, police busted a pair of suspected drug dealers after a routine traffic stop at Washburn near South street. Both suspects fled the vehicle and struggled physically with officers trying to stop them; one got away and both officers suffered minor injuries, Eggert said.
In some but not all of those cited incidents, police note, the aggressors are from outside the Lockport area.
Eggert asserted “most major crimes” in the city are being committed by outsiders, who come from Niagara Falls, Buffalo and Rochester, often to sell drugs then go home.
Technically, Tucker announced creation of an inter-agency “project impact team” that will hit selected geographic areas of the city based on reported rates of criminal activity.
The Transit-High-Erie-Walnut area is the “first” declared impact zone but it won’t be the only one, he promised.
The Transit-High-Erie-Walnut zone is first because it’s where police are seeing the biggest increase in service calls. According to Eggert, from 2011 through 2012, the department saw a 27 percent increase in calls for service, meaning every thing officers do from writing parking tickets and fielding nuisance complaints to investigating a shooting.
“It’s a pretty significant increase,” Eggert said. “It means the neighbors are starting to notice” bad acts by others.
On the city map, the impact zone is the center of Lockport, and the Washburn-Genesee streets intersection is the center of the zone.
A stone’s throw from two major real estate developments, the $8.6 million Lockport Canal Homes rental housing project by Housing Visions and a $4 million project to remake a section of Harrison Place for Trek Inc., “Washburn-Genesee” also has been code for “bad neighborhood” for at least the past couple of decades.
The Jan. 3 non-fatal shooting of a city resident occurred within one city block of the Housing Visions and Trek projects. The shooter fired at least two shots, one of which traveled across Washburn Street and struck a window at Harrison Place.
Learning that was the last straw for Tucker. Project Impact was born a little more than a week later.
“We’re putting serious money into this area and we’re not going backward,” he said.
Tucker said city officials will make sure all arrest reports generated from the zone and any court documents that follow, are marked “Impact Zone” — and he called on the Niagara County District Attorney’s office, the city prosecutor and city court judges to grant fewer “favorable” plea deals in those cases.
D.A. Michael Violante, who attended the press conference, wouldn’t make any blanket promises about no pleas, but he pledged his office “will focus on the City of Lockport a little more” when handling its criminal cases.
Project Impact calls for increased law enforcement to be complemented with increased building code enforcement. City inspectors will be looking most closely at boarded-up properties and “problem” rental houses, Tucker said, “but all property is in play.”
With the enforcement moves, Eggert said police officials will be “reaching out” to residents in the impact zone to let them know the effort is meant to help, not target, them. Officials will seek meetings with neighborhood groups throughout the zone, he said.




Lockport Union-Sun & Journal Online

January 22, 2013

Reaction to 'impact zone' is mixed

Staff reports
Lockport Union-Sun & Journal
Lockport Union-Sun & Journal — Public opinion of the city's newly announced "Impact Team Project" is a mixed bag weighed down with skepticism.
Last week, Mayor Michael Tucker announced creation of a multi-agency impact team and "impact zones," specific geographic areas that are targeted for increased police patrol and building code enforcement. The Niagara County Sheriff's Department and New York State Police are participating and sent representatives to the Friday press conference at City Hall, which drew TV news cameras as well as print reporters.
The first impact zone consists of twenty-five or so residential blocks roughly bounded by Erie, High, Transit and Walnut streets, Police Chief Lawrence Eggert said. Increased patrolling by multiple police agencies was to begin immediately, with an emphasis on Vehicle and Traffic Law enforcement by means including unannounced road blocks.
Within the zone, city building inspectors will be inspecting exteriors on 1,100 parcels looking for building code violations. All property types, single- as well as multiple-unit residential dwellings and commercial properties, are said to be in their sights.
Project Impact's aim is to weed out scofflaws and encourage property upkeep in sections of the city that struggle most with crime and blight. Tucker said it's also intended as a message to "outsiders," particularly non-residents engaged in drug trade, that order will be defended here.
The declaration followed a series of unusually violent and/or alarming criminal incidents in the city since November, including two shootings, the physical assault of a child and several significant drug busts.
Impact zones will be declared one at a time, based on spikes in local crime rates, Tucker said.
The Erie-High-Transit-Walnut zone is first after police noted a 27 percent increase in year-over-year police service calls in that area, Eggert said. Police service calls are anything police do, from writing parking tickets to fielding nuisance complaints to investigating a robbery. A sudden spike in the rate suggests the area could use extra policing, to "nip (problems) in the bud" before they're considered a normal part of the landscape, Eggert said.
In Facebook postings and interviews with a US&J reporter this week, some residents seemed less than appreciative of the impact zone declaration.
John and Linda Rosenberg of Genesee Street dislike the way it mischaracterizes, even maligns, their neighborhood. They've lived on the block between Washburn and Locust streets for 35 years, expanded the family business, Prudden & Kandt Funeral Home, encouraged their children to buy homes close by, and they say it's not nearly as bad as police and city officials have made it out to be.
"We have wonderful, caring neighbors ... and a few pigs who ruin things. That's true all over this city," Mrs. Rosenberg said, "but it's always Genesee Street that gets labeled "the red zone, the war zone, the ghetto. ... They target when they really need to clean up everything. The whole city needs a good scrubbing."
A few writers on Facebook suggested the city going for "impact" now is like closing the barn door well after the horse bolted. Blight and crime have been dragging down the targeted area for decades while "complacent" city officials, landlords and residents watched, Kenny Allore wrote on the US&J Facebook page.
Others suspect the city's true interest isn't in aiding long-beseiged residents, it's in protecting the "money," that is, new investors in the zone — Housing Visions, which put almost $9 million into a rental housing development on Genesee, Locust and Pine streets, and Trek Inc., a manufacturing company that's poised to sink $5 million into relocating to Harrison Place.
"Only reasoning for this 'step up' is because Tucker wants a business to move into the Harrisons plant!" Kelly Hall wrote.
"You didn't care til you got money," Bethany Coley wrote.
"Tucker is thumping his political chest," Spalding Street rental property owner Stephen Walsh said in a Tuesday interview. "I laughed when I read about this (impact zone). ... Government exists to protect government. To the extent that people buy into the notion that this is for them, well, we get what we deserve. ... Police officers will remain employed, that's the only 'impact' I foresee."
Walsh, who bought up and rehabilitated several residential properties around the city, says rental property owners struggle to recruit the kinds of tenants who'd make good neighbors. High property taxes and the threat of reassessment discourage housing improvement, he said; and even nice housing commands relatively low rent in this market.
City officials tend to act as though blight is the fault of landlords, but simple things the officials could do to improve neighborhoods — like add street lighting in dark areas — they won't do without badgering, if at all, Walsh added.
He's been asking, intermittently and unsuccessfully the past four years, for a street light at the end of Seidhoff Alley, an abandoned dead-end street off Spalding that a number of residents have ended up using for parking or back-yard access. The dark alley also draws drug users and vandals and blemishes an otherwise "safe, clean" neighborhood, he said.
"I can't increase the quality of tenants without a light," Walsh said. "I'm not going to have any more luck recruiting (good tenants) when the neighborhood becomes known as a place where people's liberty is infringed on (as) they're ticketed for dumb stuff like driving 5 miles over the speed limit."
Other residents see the impact zone declaration as a positive for the area.
Lewis Street homeowner Kevin Vincent thinks it's "very good news," especially the building code enforcement side of the project.
"I've always said our little neighborhood was like an oasis in the desert ... but we have definitely seen a downturn (here) the last five to seven years," he said. "I agree that the trouble seems to come from outside the city," especially when rental properties are held by non-local owners.
If increased code enforcement "sends a message .... that there are repercussions for not keeping things up, I welcome that," Vincent said. "At the very least, they should make their properties as presentable as the people who've been here a long time."
On Facebook, Lisa Rutherford suggested "better late than never," while Denise Rich, who identified herself as an ex-zone and city resident, encouraged a greater police presence in all the "bad" parts of Lockport.

Once the again the Mayor has shone his true colors! It seems that the only time anything gets done in the City is when it benefits himself! If he truly cared about the City and making it making it a great place to live, he would have supported the many groups that have sprung up over the past 9 years of his time in the Office of Mayor! Instead, he has taken an adverserial role with the various block clubs and community organizations interested in improving the quality of life throughout the City. Only when a stray bullet goes through the window of his beloved 210 Walnut Street, does he decide to take action! He says he is worried about the residence of that neighborhood, what a load of crap! He is only concerned about the commercial interests of his friends. His actions speak louder than his words.Where was he when stray bullets were flying in the all residential neighborhood of Waterman and Pine Streets? Nowhere!I agree with some of the FB posters that at least something may get done now, but where was he 20 years ago?

On a somewhat lighter note, I did get a kick out of Stephen Walsh's comments. Here is a person that like Tucker only looks out for himself. Walsh is a slumlord, and that is all he is! He does not care how his rental units impact the neighborhood they're in as long as he can make a quick buck! He is only one of many in the City.

The City needs more people like the Rosenbergs, people who truly care about the City and show it through their actions!

What about the rest of the City, Mayor? Oh yeah, not until it impacts you directly! What a joke!


Sunday, December 23, 2012

Christmas Wishes and Budget Blunders!

It appears that the City of Lockport Common Council has quite a wish list for Santa Claus this year! It is doubtful that he will be able to deliver such a large gift.

The Council has passed a budget that quite frankly is absurd. They have ignored a decade of trends for both the Fire and Police Departments. Consider that each department spends roughly $300,000 per year in overtime and yet the Council has only budgeted $50,000 per Department for 2013! That will leave the City with a $500,000 shortfall in unallocated overtime expenses for those two departments alone!

The other item on their budget wish list is that the City's Unions will concede over $750,000 in medical benefits in their negotiations. I have no ill feelings for the men and women in these unions, after all, who doesn't want to be well compensated for the work they do? However, it is doubtful that the unions will give up anything close to $750,000 in medical benefits, and so once again, what will the City do when it comes up short in its negotiations?

A 0% tax rate increase sounds good, but knowingly passing a budget with out realistic projections is criminal! I can only surmise that this budget was passed with an eye toward the 2013 election season and how good it will sound to the average Lockportian as the current Council goes door-to-door campaigning!

Well, there it is, the Council's Christmas Wishes and Budget Blunders!

Merry Christmas and may God bless you all!

Friday, September 14, 2012

Time To Stop The Finger Pointing

 The 62nd Senate District Republican Primary Race is a classic example of what's wrong with our Country today! When a conservative, independent thinking Republican goes up against a self-serving, egotistical, unethical, two-face Republicrat, and loses by a 2 to 1 margin, you have to ask why. I believe the answer is actually quite simple, people are perfectly content with mediocrity! That can be the only explanation for their contentment at the highest property taxes in the nation, the lack of employment, and the willing to accept unethical hiring practices in the public sector as well as the awarding of contacts to those that contribute to the incumbents campaign coffers.

So, to those of you that voted for George Maziarz, I have the following suggestion: The next time that you want to blame your local municipality for your high taxes, and then your local municipality blames the County Legislature, and then the County Legislature blames the State and its mandates, and then the State blames the Federal Government and its mandates, think! Save your breath because they're not listening to your words, they're listening to your vote. They believe that they can do whatever they want because you elected them, and guess what? They're right! Do you know why? Because you will vote for them over and over, again. Because you have!

So stop the finger pointing! Go look in the mirror and see the real cause of high taxes, high unemployment, poor education, overloaded welfare roles, high insurance premiums, high electrical rates, high water rates, failing infrastructures, declining property values, high gas prices, and all the other stuff you love to complain about! YOU DID IT, AND YOU ALONE!

Tuesday, September 4, 2012

STOP THE WASTE!

Lockport to join water study



Updated: September 4, 2012, 3:16 PM
LOCKPORT - The Lockport Common Council will vote Wednesday to spend $24,445 toward a study of the condition of its raw water supply line from the Niagara River, Mayor Michael W. Tucker said.
The North Tonawanda Common Council already approved an identical appropriation Aug. 21. The two cities are moving toward a possible agreement for North Tonawanda to sell treated drinking water to Lockport.
However, that will work only if Lockport's 13-mile pipeline from the North Tonawanda riverfront is in good enough condition to handle treated water.
That's the reason for the study primarily to be funded by a grant from the state Department of State. North Tonawanda Mayor Robert G. Ortt said the two cities are splitting the 20 percent match required for the grant to be received.
Norman D. Allen, Lockport director of engineering and public works, said Conestoga-Rovers & Associates, the Buffalo engineering firm that carried out the feasibility study for a multicity water deal in Niagara County, will handle the analysis of the pipeline.
The firm's initial study concluded that it was not technically feasible for Niagara Falls to join in a common water supply system with Lockport and North Tonawanda but that the latter two could work out such an arrangement.
"What we're looking at is a landmark deal that will save ratepayers money in North Tonawanda and Lockport," Ortt said.
But Tucker noted that his corporation counsel, John J. Ottaviano, had learned that participation in the grant or the study does not commit Lockport to buying water from North Tonawanda. If Lockport intends to stop treating its own water, Alderman Patrick W. Schrader, longtime chairman of Lockport's Water and Sewer Committee, has spoken out in favor of buying from the Niagara County Water District, which already has a supply valve in Lockport.
The county charges 75 cents per 1,000 gallons to its customers. Ortt said the price North Tonawanda would charge Lockport has yet to be discussed.
"Obviously, if this [pipeline study] comes back in the negative, the project's probably dead. We're trying to take this step by step rather than muddy up the waters on the back end," Ortt said. "We know there's a minimum price we'd have to charge to make it economically feasible for North Tonawanda."
Tucker said the three miles of pipeline closest to Lockport is the issue. It is 80 years old, while the other 10-mile section was replaced during the 1990s.
"It's a good idea to find out the condition of our line at a minimal cost. We've got another municipality helping to pay the cost of inspecting our line. It's good information for us to have," Tucker said.
The Niagara County Health Department would have to approve the use of the pipeline to carry treated water.
tprohaska@buffnews.com

Once again, Tucker and his lap dogs are forging ahead with a plan to waste tax dollars on a study to share services with another municipality that will have no benefit for the taxpayers in the City! It is extremely rare that it happens, but I find myself agreeing with Pat Schrader on this one. If Lockport wants to get out of the water treatment business, and they should, then let the County take it over! For years the City has been charging exhorbitant rates to its citizens to help balance the general fund, as they do with the new garbage program and waste water treatment. The question should be asked, "Who will benefit from this plan?", because we know that it won't be the taxpayers.

Saturday, May 12, 2012

Consultants, Consultants, Consultants!

Here we go again. With City Union contracts set to expire at the end of the year, the Mayor wants to hire a law firm to help with contract negotiations. Unless, I'm mistaken, and I'm usually not, the City budgeted money to retain Dick Mullaney as an advisor to the new City Clerk and to help negotiate the new contracts! Dick has served the City well as Clerk, Budget Director, and as part of the negotiating team in many contracts in the past. So, I guess I'm a little confused, if we have City Attorneys on staff, Dick Mullaney retained as a consultant, and a Mayor as our CEO, why do we need to spend more money on an outside law firm? We all know why, because our Mayor and City Attorneys are incompetent and because some GOP law firm donated money to Maziarz and Tucker and it's time for payback.

My prediction for how the negotiations will go is something like this; The Unions and City Hall have already planned their strategy together as far back as before the November election when the Police and Fire Unions endorsed Tucker. The Mayor will say the Union is demanding too much, the Union will say that the Mayor wants to take too much away, this will go on for months, all the while both sides are exchanging winks. Then, the Mayor will tell us what a great deal he made on our behalf and come out with some b.s. about how bad it could have been. The police and fire unions will get what they want, the department heads union will get what they want, and the guys that really have an affect on our everyday lives will get the short end of the straw.

 http://www.buffalonews.com/city/communities/lockport/article850063.ece

Friday, May 11, 2012

CAN YOU SAY PATRONAGE!

Once again, it appears that another faithful lap dog will get a job at taxpayers' expense. According to the papers, our Mayor is asking the Common Coumcil to create a position to market the City. Hey, I get it, George wants to reward somebody with a nice cushy job! Yeah, what a great idea, create another position at $40-45,000. Oh wait, now factor in benefits, now it's more like $60-70,000! Can't wait to see who's in line for this one! My #1 guess is Heather Peck, my #2 is Jay Krull, they're both labor fakers. 

I have a better idea, because I agree that the NTCC is wasting our money, why not let the real professionals do the job. My choice is hometown favorite The Fitzgerald Group, real marketing professionals. Give them a 4 year contract for $200,000, and have them track the ROI (producing verifiable numbers). If they don't perform, try another firm. No legacy costs, and no problem firing them like we would have with the job creation.

http://www.buffalonews.com/city/communities/lockport/article850063.ece

Sunday, March 11, 2012

David versus "Goliath"

Mongielo, Lockport Town Board resume conflict of interest feud

Updated: March 11, 2012, 7:19 AM

LOCKPORT— David J. Mongielo and the Town Board resumed their feud this week.
Mongielo, the unsuccessful 2009 candidate for supervisor who faces a potential 15-day jail sentence for violating the town’s sign ordinance, took to the microphone during the public comment period at Wednesday’s Town Board meeting.
Mongielo, a Republican committeeman, made an argument he’s offered before: that the practice of having town officeholders also serve as GOP committee members creates a conflict of interest.
Mongielo called the practice, seen not only in Lockport but in almost every other municipality, “corrupt,” because it means officeholders can take part in securing endorsements for themselves.
As the five-minute time limit expired, Supervisor Marc R. Smith warned Mongielo that his time was up. Mongielo kept talking, so after a second warning, Smith directed the technician producing the cable TV broadcast of the meeting to turn off the microphone.
“Communism in Lockport,” Mongielo said as he went back to his seat.
However, that wasn’t the end of it. Councilman Mark C. Crocker said he wanted to talk to Mongielo about a YouTube video Mongielo had produced, entitled “David Mongielo is Going to Jail For Helping Residents.”
This referred back to the issue Mongielo has with the town’s sign law.
Mongielo is awaiting a verdict March 20 from Town Justice Raymond E. Schilling, who conducted a nonjury trial Dec. 28 on Mongielo’s second alleged violation of the town’s law barring electronic signs that change more than once every 10 seconds.
Since the alleged violation occurred during the time of Mongielo’s conditional discharge for his first sign-law violation, Schilling could sentence him to 15 days behind bars.
A 9-minute videotape shot Aug. 25 by Donald J. Jablonski, town GOP chairman and Zoning Board member, showed the sign in front of Mongielo’s Robinson Road auto repair shop changing every two seconds.
Although the sign is usually used to advertise Mongielo’s business, it has been used on occasion to promote community fundraisers.
On Aug. 25, the video sign was promoting a fundraiser for Allen Gerhardt, a Niagara County sheriff’s deputy who lost both legs in a July 18 crash.
Wednesday, Crocker asked Mongielo, “How did you help Kayla Allen?”
“We help people dying of cancer,” Mongielo said. “I don’t know who Kayla is. She’s a girl who probably died, right?”
Crocker said his research indicated that Kayla Allen was murdered in North Carolina in 2003. In his video, Mongielo used a picture of that girl and her gravesite that he found on the Internet.
Crocker said that incident had nothing to do with Lockport and occurred years before Mongielo moved his business from Pendleton to Lockport.
“Don’t be dishonest,” Crocker told Mongielo. “Don’t use murdered children to further your political gains.”
“It just shows the dysfunction of local government,” said Mongielo, who provided The Buffalo News with a copy of an anonymous political mailing sent out against him in January.
At least one official reacted to Mongielo’s charges with sarcasm.
Councilman Paul H. Pettit told the audience, “I learned tonight I was corrupt and a Communist. I’ll have to keep that in mind.”
tprohaska@buffnews.com

While I may not always agree with Dave Mongielo's tactics, I do admire his persistence and passion! Hey, let's face it folks, any time you question the status-quo, the press and the people in power are going to paint you as some kind of lunatic or a sore loser. I, like Dave, am less concerned with the actual political views and ideals of a person, and am more concerned with the processes. Keep up the heat Mr. Mongielo, people are watching, listening, and learning!