THE WAR CONTINUES

Every time we try to get out they pull us back in.

There's a number of issues to discuss. We'll do so over the next few days.

First, the sacred Block Grants. Just another sign that Troy is a client state of State and Federal largesse.

Instead of ensuring that a hearing was scheduled, the Mayor seems more interested in casting blame:

Mayor Harry Tutunjian, a Republican, said today that the Democrat-controlled City Council has endangered the funds by failing to schedule a public hearing or a vote on the allocations.

"The City Council does not run the city of Troy and their continued insistence that they do has now put more than $2 million in funding at risk," Tutunjian said.

As a reader points out: If the Council doesn't run the City, perhaps the Mayor can stop laying blame and do his job. If he devoted half the time to the City as he did to pay raises for staff, things might run smoother.

We're not sure who is at fault. It's a money screw-up so chances are it's the Mayor. We fondly recall the Mayor, hat in hand, meeting with Mayor Stratton and Congressman McNulty so Troy would not lose millions in HUD money. Then there's the issue of why the Department of Transportation wants to meet with the Administration over state funds spent on unrealized projects, or the Carignan debacle or the South Troy Gateway/neolithic Rockhenge disaster.

So, the Council can dole out the Block Grants, hold a public hearing and a special meeting and get it done. Why all the drama? Didn't the Council end up holding something like seventeen special meetings until the Mayor finally got his utility rate hikes? It's not the end of the world.

CITY HALL

According the The Record:

The City Hall Review Committee will provide no recommendation to the City Council regarding the sale or demolition of City Hall due to a lack of provided information, according to Councilman Ken Zalewski, D-District 5.

Zalewski, who sits as the committee’s chairman, explained that they simply did not receive enough information to make any kind of informed recommendation to the council.

Zalewski has thus far conducted himself like a mature adult. He obviously doesn't want to play politics with the committee. We have to ask: What information has been withheld and by whom? Has the Administration failed to provide information that would aid the committee? Unthinkable?

We never thought a recommendation, per se, was necessary. What the public wants to see is simple enough: Set forth the pros and cons of selling/swapping City Hall and the pros and cons of renovating City Hall.

If it's to be renovation, may we suggest vinyl siding? It's attractive, easy to clean and saves a lot on the heating bills.