Le Royans for reopening the pool

I have had a very interesting two days of getting signatures on the petition to get the Town and Village of Le Roy to accept the private funding that is going to be proposed July 13th to the village board and July 14th to the town board, hopefully. Many residents are signing. They say our kids need something to do and we never should have let it close. The support, they say, we have not shown since closing.

Two years ago I started a Community Holiday Bazaar that runs concurrent with the annual Winterfest. It was time we came together as a community. People used to walk around say hi to each and just talk. We have come to a time when we are too busy even to say hi.  

I did so because I grew up in this fine community. Our schools receive honors, our marching bands receive honors. All for being the best in spirit, in commitment, and all for our kids. Yet as a community since our pool closed, we have forgotten how important that is to the summers for our kids. We all say they have nothing to do. They are all over the place getting in trouble.  

Our kids in this community have turned to swimming at the Quarry and at Blue Hole behind the cemetery.  

All this is stirring up conversations all over town. People want it back. They want our elected officials to act on this. They want them as our elected leaders to open our pool. We are willing to do what it takes -- to pay for it, to have it added back to the budgets. 

I would like to say that in a conversation yesterday, I addressed the need to correct the work on the east side of the village. I apparently offended a board member. I was not completely informed on job titles and positions. Her spouse apparently holds a key position in the DPW. She felt like mentioning it that I was attacking him. I have no clue who did the work. I had no clue of his position in the DPW. I based my opinion on the Mayor's Notes from the weekly Pennysaver. Seeing there were problems and knowing they need fixing would only lead to the thought we have to pay to get it done, right?

I changed subjects back to the pool discussion. I was no way placing blame. She continued in her rationale to say the attendance was low, THE MAIN USERS OF THE POOL WERE LOWER INCOME PEOPLE, and we are at a time of using pools in backyards.  

I asked does that make me low income because I am in a check-to-check household who uses the pool?  

I did get irritated and reminded her that she was an elected official and she needed to act in the manner that the commonwealth of our community wished her to. I stated that if she did not, based on the petition when presented, it would be interesting to see what the people of this community thought.  

Walking out, I loudly stated it again "You are an elected official -- you need to remember that. We the people elected her."

I would like to state that at the beginning of this conversation she had a petition to be re-added to her party's ballot. I am a NOP so could not, but after this conversation probably would not.

I thought I would share this since she contacted a village board member who I am friends with and asked her to speak to me.  

It was a problem that I apparently offended her, by her perception of a generalized comment about repairs that she took personally.

She never once mentioned the LOW INCOME based comment she made.  

She based that on the fact that people from the Royals use it. I later found out in another conversation when I apologized to her husband. Do you realize that those people renting there pay more money to live there than those of us who own homes? I lived there before.

IT DOES NOT MATTER WHAT YOUR INCOME LEVEL IS -- YOU ARE PART OF THE COMMUNITY.  RENTERS PAY LANDLORDS WHO PAY THE TAXES. YOU HAVE RIGHTS, TOO.  

Must be nice to be so high up in the air that you can pass that kind of judgement on those below you. Last I recall, she grew up in Le Roy, too.  

Here is an important comment I saw posted on Facebook. I will not name who said it, but it sums our need up:

A community is not a community if all that the residents have in common is sleeping in the same geographic area at night before they rush off to their jobs in other towns each day. Community requires shared experiences and activities. That pool needs to be open.

"No man really becomes a fool until he stops asking questions."

-- Charles P. Steinmetz