Today on his blog conservative Andrew Sullivan is moaning about the future tax increases that his one time hero Junior Bush has made inevitable by running up huge deficits. Sullivan also claims that he'll only get about half of what he should under Social Security when he retires because "baby boomers" will "hog" it all for themselves. This is typical of the upside down logic of conservatives.If the money squandered on the Iraq war was combined with the reversal of the unethical tax cuts for the wealthy instituted from the Reagan era onward, Sullivan would get his full Social Security payment, we'd be able to fully fund Medicare, provide healthcare insurance to all Americans, and fix our schools. Conservatives simply have the wrong priorities.
Photo: We lost two sets of beach steps and a ramp to a Nor'easter in April. As of Memorial Day the Brookhaven Town Highway Department had only replaced one stairway leaving an unsafe situation for holiday crowds. Apparently, work resumed yesterday on the other stairway. Our Property Owner's Association was basically gutted a few years ago and replaced by a feel-good but ineffective Community Association. In addition, a private group funded replacement stairways in past years, so the town got used to being able to ignore Cherry Grove's needs. This is going to be a difficult situation to rectify.
Jim
3 comments:
I can't agree with your statement that the Property Owner's group of Cherry Grove was replaced with a "feel-good but ineffective Community Association." The Community Association maintains two buildings and provides a forum for many different viewpoints from those who live here in the Grove. Yes, they have an unfair and undemocratic Board member selection process which needs to be changed, but that's not enough reason to disparage the entire organization. --Dan Evans
My sweetie and I disagree here, but maintaining two buildings and providing a forum do not an effective organization make, when the hamlet has problems such as noise, dangerously broken walkways, etc.
Jim, you can't have it both ways. You had just indicated a few days earlier the positive side that the town was now replacing the stairs and that in the past the Dunes Fund had to use their own funds to accomplish this. While I would agree that it would have been better to replace both stair cases faster, I would not negate the fact that progress has been made. Now let’s also get the facts correct. The Cherry Grove Property Owner Association (CGPOA) was never gutted. The CGPOA has not changed. What was added was a non-profit arm called the Cherry Grove Community Association, Inc. (CGCAI). By having this additional arm the community has benefited from over $50,000 in grant money that has gone toward the two properties, the house used by Elmer Lindsey for Doctors, the Community House and for renovations to the booth we supply to the Suffolk County Marine Bureau for our Police services. By having this additional arm (the CGCAI as a non-for-profit) the community is now about to benefit from another $50,000 grant for additional repairs to the two properties we own. Additionally, the revitalized Property Owners Association is now actively lobbing (the Community Association can not lobby on our behalf, only the CGPOA can legally do so) for additional grants which we would only be eligible for by having the CGCAI. For example, we have meet with Suffolk County Economic Development and are about to apply for Downtown Revitalization Grant money. Larry
Post a Comment