Things change faster than the speed of light here in the 21st century.
We’ve heard plenty of talk about changing the Liverpool village election from June to November, but that won’t happen this year. No, that change will roll around at the somewhat slower speed of sound, no earlier than autumn 2014.
In January, the county Board of Elections publicly urged all 15 of Onondaga County’s villages to schedule their elections at the same time as the annual General Election in November.
Liverpool Village Clerk Mary Ellen Sims said it’s possible the village will move its election to November in 2014, but “definitely not this year.”
Meanwhile, at its March 18 meeting the village board of trustees is expected to approve the use of the village hall for the village Republican Party caucus on the evening of Tuesday, April 23.
At the caucus, incumbent Mayor Gary White and two sitting trustees, Bob Gaetano and Dennis Hebert, will likely be nominated for re-election. All three are Republicans.
In 2011, when White ran unopposed for his second mayoral term, he drew 102 votes. In his initial mayoral campaign in 2009, White beat independent candidate Tom Stack by a vote of 291 to 154.
More than 1,500 registered voters reside in the mile-square village, but less than 70 of them turned out to vote in the 2012 election when trustees Nick Kochan and Jim Rosier and Village Justice Tony LaValle each ran without opponents. Kochan, Rosier and LaValle are also Republicans.
Republicans outnumber Democrats in the village by some three dozen voters, and about 25 percent of the village’s registered voters choose not to enroll in any party.
There is presently no active Democratic Party organization in the village and hasn’t been for a solid decade, but Carrie Roseamelia, the new Democratic chairwoman in the town of Salina, which includes the village, said she’d like to see one form. She can be contacted at 440-3606, or [email protected].
Village voters will go to the polls on Tuesday, June 18, at the Village Hall on Sycamore Street.
Have you seen the blue pouches and white plastic buckets attached to maple trees along Second Street near the corner of Hickory? That’s the work of village Renaissance man Joe Romano — sculptor, carpenter, winemaker, linebacker, husband, father and friend — who’s tapping sugar maples and silver maples for their sweet sap. Yes, add “sugarer” to that long list of Joe’s many talents.
“I tapped about 14 trees here in the village and a bunch more down in DeRuyter where I have a camp where I do the sugaring,” Joe said. The boiling process is time-consuming as the raw sap is evaporated so that the syrup achieves its desired consistency.
In all, Joe hopes to make 14 gallons of maple syrup, and he promises to share a quart with me. Stay tuned, and I’ll tell you how its tastes.
Except for an extended tour of duty in Vietnam some 40 years ago, Peter Green lived his whole life here in Liverpool. Pete died in his easy chair on Monday, March 11. He was 65 years old.
Peter was easily recognizable because he was a tall, robust man who walked with a distinct limp. A hail fellow, Peter was always friendly, a little on the loud side, but an invariably pleasant and personable conversationalist.
He worked as a coordinator of community habilitation for ARISE Child and Family Services. He was an avid fan of Syracuse University basketball, but when it came to baseball and football, Pete’s allegiances were in the Midwest. He rooted for baseball’s St. Louis Cardinals and football’s Chicago Bears.
