The filing period is in February for three positions of Town Board of Trustees. There are two full terms and then one to fill the remaining term of the recently vacated position. The dynamics of the board could really change for the better or the people’s vote will be banal and status quo will prevail. It is time for you to challenge yourself to step up to the plate and make a positive impact for Buffalo. Encourage someone to run for office. Vote for the best candidates for that office. This should not be a popularity contest. These are demanding positions and they deserve to be occupied by persons willing to commit lots of time and put forth honest efforts toward the issues that will be encountered.
Also the Town Treasure's position is coming up. That would be an excellent one to see challenged. It pays very well too.
Buss and Harper are the two Trustees that do not have to run for office. Linda does not run for office this time either.
Is anyone out there up for the challenge? Who is willing to stick their neck out?
Wednesday, December 31, 2008
Sunday, December 21, 2008
WHERE THERE IS NO VISION, THE PEOPLE PERISH
Where there is no vision.
At a recent town board meeting it was interesting to note that the town’s economic developer seemed to firmly believe that the capacity of the wastewater treatment facility is sufficient. There seems to be a lot of opposition regarding the accuracy of the presentation at the 2010 meetings that where held in the past. This information was presented by the state’s Department of Commerce. The slide show clearly proclaims that the wastewater treatment facility is at full capacity. There must therefore be in existence some evidence to the contrary of that presentation. Evidence that would dispute the situation that exists right now will not continue to exist. As previously pointed out by the article “Anyway you look at it” from the Inside Buffalo website, there are indications that the facility needs to be upgraded to handle its inflow.
Where there is no vision.
One would think that the economic developer of the Town of Buffalo would be the champion crusader for growth of the community. The desirable goals of the economy for the town would be progress. With progress, there would be developmental growth of the town, new houses, new businesses, and more residents. That will put more strain on the sewage system. However, the sensitivity with the associated costs of the expansion of the system is clouding the ability to come to terms with the situation. The capacity issue is not sensitive in itself. The town is reaching the limit of, and may have already outgrown its ability to handle, what is going to the plant. Being unprepared is what has created the inability to stop hiding from the truth.
The people perish.
If you have a system that is maxed out it will not allow for any growth to it. If there is no desire to expand the system then the alternatives would be to reduce the load to it. In order to reduce the load to this treatment plant the number of residents using it would need to go down. Also the number of business would need to be reduced to lower the strain on the wastewater treatment plant. The number of visitors and shoppers will need to be reduced or maybe they will be asked to “go” somewhere else besides Buffalo. Evidently, the evidence the economic developer is relying upon, is for people to move from Buffalo, businesses to close down in Buffalo, and visitors to go somewhere else besides Buffalo.
The people perish.
Is the economic developer’s plan for Buffalo to tell a potential business or developer to come back in about 10 years? By then we hope to have lost enough people that we will be able to handle the strain that you are going to put on our system. But if you come today we will be forced to bite the bullet and upgrade our wastewater treatment facility.
Where there is no vision the people perish.
Upgrades could be expensive and the town may have to borrow money to do them. It has never borrowed money for a big infrastructure project. And that is what has created the dire situations that exist with all of the infrastructures of Buffalo. The stronghold that has existed for years inside City Hall can be blamed for the shortsightedness of its operations. The only way they know how to invest in this community is through a certificate of deposit of its extra money into a bank. City Hall’s inability or flat out refusal to admit that there is a problem will do nothing but lengthen the time it takes to deal with them. Maybe they hope to divert the issues long enough that they won’t have to spend time and effort working on them during their tenure.
Fortunately, the town board does have the ability to change the direction of the town’s policy, or lack there of. But do they have the vision to temporarily cast their friendships aside to do what is best for the betterment of the community? Only time will tell.
Linda,Leah,James and Joe.....What is your vision?
Buss,Brown,Bishop, and Harper it's your legacy.....Will the people perish?
At a recent town board meeting it was interesting to note that the town’s economic developer seemed to firmly believe that the capacity of the wastewater treatment facility is sufficient. There seems to be a lot of opposition regarding the accuracy of the presentation at the 2010 meetings that where held in the past. This information was presented by the state’s Department of Commerce. The slide show clearly proclaims that the wastewater treatment facility is at full capacity. There must therefore be in existence some evidence to the contrary of that presentation. Evidence that would dispute the situation that exists right now will not continue to exist. As previously pointed out by the article “Anyway you look at it” from the Inside Buffalo website, there are indications that the facility needs to be upgraded to handle its inflow.
Where there is no vision.
One would think that the economic developer of the Town of Buffalo would be the champion crusader for growth of the community. The desirable goals of the economy for the town would be progress. With progress, there would be developmental growth of the town, new houses, new businesses, and more residents. That will put more strain on the sewage system. However, the sensitivity with the associated costs of the expansion of the system is clouding the ability to come to terms with the situation. The capacity issue is not sensitive in itself. The town is reaching the limit of, and may have already outgrown its ability to handle, what is going to the plant. Being unprepared is what has created the inability to stop hiding from the truth.
The people perish.
If you have a system that is maxed out it will not allow for any growth to it. If there is no desire to expand the system then the alternatives would be to reduce the load to it. In order to reduce the load to this treatment plant the number of residents using it would need to go down. Also the number of business would need to be reduced to lower the strain on the wastewater treatment plant. The number of visitors and shoppers will need to be reduced or maybe they will be asked to “go” somewhere else besides Buffalo. Evidently, the evidence the economic developer is relying upon, is for people to move from Buffalo, businesses to close down in Buffalo, and visitors to go somewhere else besides Buffalo.
The people perish.
Is the economic developer’s plan for Buffalo to tell a potential business or developer to come back in about 10 years? By then we hope to have lost enough people that we will be able to handle the strain that you are going to put on our system. But if you come today we will be forced to bite the bullet and upgrade our wastewater treatment facility.
Where there is no vision the people perish.
Upgrades could be expensive and the town may have to borrow money to do them. It has never borrowed money for a big infrastructure project. And that is what has created the dire situations that exist with all of the infrastructures of Buffalo. The stronghold that has existed for years inside City Hall can be blamed for the shortsightedness of its operations. The only way they know how to invest in this community is through a certificate of deposit of its extra money into a bank. City Hall’s inability or flat out refusal to admit that there is a problem will do nothing but lengthen the time it takes to deal with them. Maybe they hope to divert the issues long enough that they won’t have to spend time and effort working on them during their tenure.
Fortunately, the town board does have the ability to change the direction of the town’s policy, or lack there of. But do they have the vision to temporarily cast their friendships aside to do what is best for the betterment of the community? Only time will tell.
Linda,Leah,James and Joe.....What is your vision?
Buss,Brown,Bishop, and Harper it's your legacy.....Will the people perish?
Tuesday, December 16, 2008
TOWN BOARD MEETING - DEQ & MYERS ENGINEERING
Meeting to be held on Wednesday, December 17, 2008 - 6:00 pm at the Library. As the agenda has not been posted as of this date/time, here is an overview of what is expected.
Both DEQ and Myers Engineering will have officials present to discuss the issues of our wastewater system. This is a question and answer subject. Please come prepared.
Discussion on the Library roof potential roof repairs.
SEE COMMENTS FOR COMPLETE AGENDA THAT HAS FINALLY BEEN LET OUT TO THE PUBLIC.
Both DEQ and Myers Engineering will have officials present to discuss the issues of our wastewater system. This is a question and answer subject. Please come prepared.
Discussion on the Library roof potential roof repairs.
SEE COMMENTS FOR COMPLETE AGENDA THAT HAS FINALLY BEEN LET OUT TO THE PUBLIC.
Wednesday, December 10, 2008
A PICTURE SAYS A THOUSAND WORDS
Besides the captions what do these pics posted on Inside Buffalo say?
http://insidebuffalo.net/index-22.php
Is megafines a word?
http://insidebuffalo.net/index-22.php
Is megafines a word?
Saturday, December 6, 2008
CITY MANAGER....BLOWING SMOKE?
At the last meeting, the city manager mentioned doing a smoke test on the sewer lines of Buffalo. What is this? This test is primarily used to detect areas of unwarranted inflow into the sewer system. Such would be roof gutter and/or down spouts that are hooked into the home sewer lines. Storm water drainage pipes that are cross connected with the sewer lines. Old abandoned houses and building sewer lines that may be allowing surface water to enter the system. There may be old lateral lines, from septic systems which have been hooked into the sewer system. Leakage around manhole cover rings may also be a problem. The smoke test may also detect damaged and leaking joints in sewer pipes and other overflow problems with the sewer system. And of course illegal connections such as dog kennels equipped to rinse down their mess.
Basically it is finding areas that when it rains, that rain enters the sewer system and unnecessarily gets dumped into the sewer lagoons.
When the smoke test is performed the areas are marked and then they can be evaluated for possible corrections. This smoke is toxic and will make you very sick if you inhale it, that is, if it doesn’t kill you first. The number of people killed will reduce the numbers that use the sewer system and bring the system back to capacity, thus saving the town thousand upon thousand of dollars! (Just kidding!!)
“It is actually non-toxic, harmless and has no odor.”
This approach would be used for a situation where the capacity of the treatment system based on population or actual usage was not an issue and yet the system was still exceeding capacity. So for finding troubles with the lines themselves and addressing extra water that may enter the sewer system illegally the smoke test would be used. This smoke and mirrors approach will not address the capacity issue at hand. It will only generate more disbelief about the capacity issue. Blowing smoke is not the answer, even though it is the norm. Hasn’t there been a big enough can of worms opened already? Let the sleeping dogs lie.
Basically it is finding areas that when it rains, that rain enters the sewer system and unnecessarily gets dumped into the sewer lagoons.
When the smoke test is performed the areas are marked and then they can be evaluated for possible corrections. This smoke is toxic and will make you very sick if you inhale it, that is, if it doesn’t kill you first. The number of people killed will reduce the numbers that use the sewer system and bring the system back to capacity, thus saving the town thousand upon thousand of dollars! (Just kidding!!)
“It is actually non-toxic, harmless and has no odor.”
This approach would be used for a situation where the capacity of the treatment system based on population or actual usage was not an issue and yet the system was still exceeding capacity. So for finding troubles with the lines themselves and addressing extra water that may enter the sewer system illegally the smoke test would be used. This smoke and mirrors approach will not address the capacity issue at hand. It will only generate more disbelief about the capacity issue. Blowing smoke is not the answer, even though it is the norm. Hasn’t there been a big enough can of worms opened already? Let the sleeping dogs lie.
Friday, December 5, 2008
NEW ARTICLES UNDER HOT NEWS @ INSIDEBUFFALO
After not much activity from InsideBuffalo in a while there are some new articles that have hit the online magazine. These articles may answer some questions that have been raised concerning some of the Town of Buffalo's latest events.
I have posted links to two of the articles below. Come back to this BLOG and leave comments and raise unanswered questions. Anonymous posting is available to use but please don't abuse it.
Thanks
Click on the article links below to read them.
ANY WAY YOU LOOK AT IT
http://insidebuffalo.net/index-20.php
Buffalo Oklahoma Town Board
Hikes Pay by 5%
http://insidebuffalo.net/index-44.php
I have posted links to two of the articles below. Come back to this BLOG and leave comments and raise unanswered questions. Anonymous posting is available to use but please don't abuse it.
Thanks
Click on the article links below to read them.
ANY WAY YOU LOOK AT IT
http://insidebuffalo.net/index-20.php
Buffalo Oklahoma Town Board
Hikes Pay by 5%
http://insidebuffalo.net/index-44.php
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