RECORD ARTICLE TWENTY-FIVE YEARS AGO RELEVANT TODAY

The article was written by a K-W Record reporter by the name of Prita Yalaja. She stated that Woolwich Council essentially did what local big shot developers insisted on. There was of course the predictable denials and howls of outrage by the slighted politicians and staff bleating about process and how only good planning resulted in the final decisions. Here in Elmira development seems to have bounced around from the south end (first residential then industrial/commercial) to the west end (residential) with plans at one time for more development in the north end of Elmira. Surprise, surprise for the last several years it's been all about developing "employment lands" on the contaminated floodplain of the Canagagigue Creek. This of course also includes losing current farmland but hey what kind of planning puts chemical factories directly beside productive farmland in the first place?

Numerous parties have attended the Woolwich public meetings both with and without professional assistance. Any concerns and criticisms of east side development have been effectively ignored with little or no intelligent and reasoned rebuttal. I am still waiting to see the so called costing that would prove that municipal services can be provided more cost effectively on the east side than elsewhere. It seems to me that it's all about developing where your friends and influential people can make even more money while "unexpected" costs and overuns will of course be borne by the taxpayers. Between the contaminated soils and groundwater south and east of Uniroyal/Lanxess as well as the regular flooding I think that huge money as usual will be made by a few with the taxpayers picking up the tab for the additional costs of developing on the east side. This after all has always been the impetus behind growing populations: i.e. download as many costs as possible upon the masses while the privileged accrue the lion's share of the profits.