Report on last night's Town Hall meeting

Hello ARRG members!!

As promised here is our report on last night's board meeting.

Despite the fact that the weather was bone-chilling, over fifty people braved the cold night and came out to show solidarity for the Alden RRG. We filled the room again, so much so that they had to go and get more chairs.

This tremendous turn-out couldn't have been possible without the help of our volunteer street captains who made phone calls throughout this past week! A very special THANK YOU to all who helped! You are AWESOME!!! And THANK YOU to all of you who have submitted your yellow inserts so far. You can still send yours in if you haven't already. We'll continue to present them to the Town Board as long as they keep coming.

When it was time for "business from the floor", Coleen Czechowski (representing the ARRG) presented all of the yellow letters distributed recently to Supervisor Smith in a large binder, and read a report advising of the synopsis of the letters, and a sample of some of the passionate personal comments written by the respondents.

The board (and all attendees) listened intently and Supervisor Smith, although not required, opened the discussion to other ARRG members. Numerous ARRG members (including Ron Walker, Paul Loehr, Linda Colson, Jim Wheeler, Gerald Aldinger, Jim Guarino, Keith Hoffman, Bonnie Hy, Bob Wohlgemuth, Tom Darcy and Jim Bicheler) asked a variety of questions, each expressing their concern involving issues such as the master plan, zoning, the aquifer, the village's apparent lack of participation in this issue, the form of communication on the part of the board, etc.

Supervisor Smith explained that the proposed project is "back with" the town planning board due to the fact that Russo revised the number of acres that he is requesting rezoning for, and that if the planning board declines Mr Russo's request to rezone, then it is a dead issue; but if the planning board recommends that the town board approve the rezone, then the town board has to start the process of environmental, SEQR and other investigations, including a public hearing, which could take six months to a year.

The next planning board meeting is scheduled for next Tuesday, Feb 13. If we find out that the planning board will be discussing this issue, we will let the ARRG members know. Supervisor Smith stated last night, that as of this evening, the planning board still had not received a site plan from Mr Russo.

Supervisor Smith invited all citizens to contact him either at the Town Hall or at the Alden Pharmacy to discuss this issue further at any time. It is completely apparent to us that he is gathering ALL information and sharing the same with all of the board members.

We wish to take this time to again thank the numerous citizens who continue to take the initiative to come to the meetings, write and sign letters, post signs in their yards, send donations, etc. All of your efforts are having an impact and making a difference!

It's especially comforting to see the concern coming not from just residents who would have this project "in their backyard", but to see people equally concerned who live in "the other end" of Alden. They understand that this project would affect the ENTIRE community, and that if approved, there would most likely be other projects to follow, and possibly in other parts of the town. THANK YOU!!

We would like you to at this time shift your focus on not just what you DON'T want, but what you DO want and more importantly, HOW we can accomplish it.

The overall concensus of opinion seems to be that we want the old Ames Plaza to be the core of our retail area. The management company of that plaza is our major stumbling block. They are content to keep retailers out and do so by either making the rent so high, or the terms of the rental agreement so difficult that numerous interested parties have chosen other locations. Redstone Investments is basically "holding our town hostage".

We need your ideas, knowledge, contacts, etc on how we can convince Redstone that their business methods need to be altered to work with our community. Please contact us with your ideas.

We are in the planning stages of another member meeting soon. Previous meetings have resulted in great "brain-storming" and knowledge exchange. As soon as we have a date, we'll let everyone know.

We also ask the following of you:
1) check out our web-log frequently www.savealden.blogspot.com
2) only about 10% of our members have provided us with email addresses, so it's extremely
difficult to communicate with them. If you know who they are, please encourage them to
provide us with their email address. Addresses are sent in confidence and not shared with others.
3) continue to post signs in your yard. Call us if you need one, or yours needs repair due to the weather.
4) contact us with suggestions on how we can fight Redstone Investments
5) continue to attend meetings. Your presence is making a difference!!
6) because of our contactly increasing membership, it's getting more and more difficult to communicate. We need more street captains to make a few telephone calls to other members when we have important news to share. We will provide you with a list of names and phone numbers to call (usually only about 10-15 names). Please let us know if we can add you to our list of volunteers.

Any questions or comments at anytime, please contact us.

Kindest regards,
The Alden Residents for Responsible Growth