More observations from the planning board meeting:

More observations from the Planning Board meeting:

I contacted the USDA Farm Services Agency in East Aurora in regards to the question posed by the Planning Board:
"How much farm land is there in Alden?"
Since they had no clue where to find the info, I will attempt to find out for them.

An interesting observation that I had, is that Russ Savage is the most vocal member of the Planning Board, and the others mostly just nod their heads. Russ made some conflicting observations in that he appears to be for this Wal-Mart project, but he is annoyed by more signals on Rt. 20.

Traffic flow through the village is a concern of one of the other Planning Board members (I do not know his name, he sits across from the secretary/clerk). I spoke with him after the meeting, and he is annoyed at the difficulty exiting the Ames parking lot when he attends the farmers market. He sees the Wal-Mart location as ideal because of more traffic lanes, and he believes that the congestion will be more manageable out of the Village. He also feels that the Ames location should be razed and replaced with senior housing. He was involved with the Economic Development group when they were trying to get a tenant in the plaza, and I believe that he said no one was interested because of Alden's small market area. (The fact that the owners of the plaza are happy with the status quo doesn't help the situation).

Ralph Witt seems to be concerned about the appearance of the parking lot, and he wants the parking lot in the back of the building, and a nice storm retention pond and septic system out by the road where they can dressed up with a fountain.

See you on Saturday,
Jim Guarino