Mayor's Desk: Wacky Weather, Help Your Town and the State Budget

It is Tuesday afternoon as I write this column (due to printing deadlines) and so far today we have had snow and sleet or freezing rain, with the promise of more of the same between today and Wednesday.  And more forecast for Saturday or Sunday. The only good thing is that today there is little wind. Perhaps you have heard the blizzard reports coming out of Texas. My brother — who lives about 2 miles from the Super Bowl Stadium — tells me that they have crews on standby to clear snow from extra seating that they have installed. It was 70 degrees there last week. A very weird winter. Global warming? 

I will remind you that it is important that fire hydrants be cleared of the snow. Normally this is not a matter for concern as the snow is seldom high enough to hide the hydrants. That is not the case this year. We have deep snow, as well as the mounds that the plows push up against the curbs. 

Most of our firemen are volunteers, with regular day jobs. Their time is limited for this important task. They are doing it — in fact the West Harrison volunteers called three “drills”,  three assemblies, specifically for this task — while the other departments have used a mix of methods.

You can help by clearing the snow from any hydrant on or near your property. In some municipalities there are laws that state it is the responsibility of the property owner to clear these places, just as clearing the sidewalks is the homeowner’s responsibility. We have never seen the need for such a law, but if we continue to have these snowfalls, perhaps we should discuss it. Safety and quick response in the event of a fire is the overriding concern. 

Tuesday morning the governor invited the supervisors and mayors of all municipalities to participate in a conference call to discuss the impact that his proposed budget would have on us. He is proposing a 10 percent cut for state offices and agencies, but a 2 percent cut in state funding for municipalities. Harrison received $183,729 in state funding in 2010, but in the 2011 budget we reduced our expectations to $181,900 on the advice of state officials. What impact will this 2 percent cut have on our budget?  If they use the 2010 number, then the impact will be only $846. We budgeted wisely. 

We are investigating going to a private system for emergency phone calls. At present we use the county’s 911 system, but that is limited, and does not have a complete list of phone numbers, nor does it have text message capabilities. 

All the vendors we have interviewed can do text messaging as well as having access to listed phones, and numbers through Cablevision. With GPS capability, calls and messages can be directed to specific streets or areas for emergencies that affect just those areas. We would need your cooperation in giving us your e-mail addresses, as well as unlisted numbers. Phone calls would be strictly limited to true emergencies: such as power outages, flooding and water main breaks, although texting could be more frequent. Please let me know if you think this would be a desirable service. 

This past week I attended two funeral services, one for a dear friend, and the second for a man I had known for a long time although not as closely.  

In both instances, the eulogies highlighted facets of their lives that were not apparent in day-to-day contacts. The first one was, among other things, a lawyer at the Nuremburg trials and later had an important influence helping juveniles caught up in the court system. The second was a successful businessman who shared that success, one project being a pre-k program he funded in Israel. Both were wonderful people who had great impacts on the lives of others, yet to us, they were just friends, neighbors. How many of us have read obituaries, and thought: “I didn’t know that". Harrison's wonderful people don’t often share how wonderful they are.