From the supervisor: The spirit of compromise

By Jim Lanning

Town Supervisor

We have embraced a spirited political discussion over the past few weeks on the trail system in our community.

I have encouraged participation from the residents of the northern hamlets in the discussion.

I always encourage political participation from all aspects of the community.

This participation must continue beyond Election Day.

We do not elect dictators we elect representatives that are tasked with deciding, to the best of their ability, the will of the people.  A government of the people, by the people, and for the people must include the people affected by any proposal.

When I was elected to be your supervisor I inherited the Rails to Trails committee.

At our first meeting we adopted the Annual Resolution which sets our committees, liaisons, and various positions within your town government.

At that resolution the town board voted unanimously to change the Rail to Trails committee to the “Multi Use Corridor and Trails Committee.”

This was a compromise as I had wanted to name it the Skaneateles Trails Committee.

In my world everyone has to compromise.

The reason for this name change was to expand the scope of attention to the many nature trails and hiking trails that our community is fortunate to have and not focus on just one trail.

I did not change any members and have tried to get this committee to expand their intentions to all of our trails.

It was my intention to focus our intentions to connecting the trail south towards and including the long proposed creek walk in the village.

The trail through the northern hamlets on the old railroad bed is filled with animosity and opposition from local residents.

Some residents think it would be a good idea while others are opposed. It will have very large budget implications and will be very expensive to construct.  It is very difficult for me to support a proposal that does not have widespread community support of the local residents.

The old Rails to Trails committee had secured a form of grant funding that would help us to study the trail system and make recommendations.

I am enthusiastic about this study and have been from the beginning.

I have asked that the study be focused on connecting the Charlie Major Trail to the village.

There is widespread support for this initiative. Politicians would be better served to focus on the common ground than to continually argue our differences.  The agency that is helping us is on board with this focus.

The town board is open to discussions on the creation and connection of pedestrian trails in Skaneateles Falls area, but it needs to involve community support and compromise.

There are certain areas that it simply will not work.

This initiative will be phase two of the project and the agency is ready to help us with that sometime in the future.

I am asking the community to support our initiative to expand our view of all the trails and step back from the singular focus of forcing trails where they may not be wanted.  We also need to address our maintenance of the existing trails.

I welcome your thoughts and comments.