To the Editor:

On the need for two governments:

I have not yet heard or read a convincing argument in favor of dissolving the Village of Potsdam and substituting one government for the two existing. Some of what I’ve heard so far includes:

1. “Potsdam, at only 15,000 residents, doesn’t need two governments – look at Watertown, which has just under 30,000 residents and only one government.”

Population is not a rational decider of the number of governments needed. If it were, all of St. Lawrence County, with a population of 109,000, would only have one government, just like Syracuse, with a population of just under 150,000.

Community vision, service needs and values should be the main factors; what people want, what they are willing to pay for, and how they want their community to look.

The Village of Potsdam’s municipal services, available village-wide for all residents, include water, sewer, trash, police, sidewalks, parks, brush and leaf pickup, economic development, community development, museum, and street lights, to name a few.

The Town of Potsdam, on a town-wide basis, does not offer these services. The Town-outside residents do not want these municipal services.

This does not make the Village “good” OR the Town “bad,” that is, one is not better than the other. They are simply different, and people choose to live one way or another.

Each government represents very different community interests, and given the large variation in service needs and desires, it is reasonable and rational for Potsdam to have both the town and village.

2. “It’s time for the old guard to go.”

If we don’t like who is running the village, we don’t have to get rid of the village. We elect new representation, or better yet, pass a petition and run for office ourselves. So, if you don’t like the people serving you, don’t dissolve the village, elect new town and/or village board members.

3. “Communications and transportation technologies have erased the village boundaries.”

With better communications and transportation technologies, the world has indeed shrunk today.

We can travel and talk everywhere throughout Potsdam, however the village boundary is really defined by the location of the portfolio of all of the municipal services, not just roads and phone.

People choose to live inside or outside of the village based on services desires. It is not efficient, effective or affordable to have the same full portfolio of services available town-wide over the comparatively sparsely populated town.

The Town government and its residents understand and accept this. It is not logical or reasonable to expect them to pay for services they neither want nor need.

4. “The Town takes care of the Town, the Village takes care of the Village...get rid of the Village and the Town will take care of everyone.”

If this was a good basis for the needs of government then the County would take care of the County, the State would take care of the State, or the Federal government would take care of us all. This is clearly not the case.

This comes back to vision, services and values. In response to local vision and needs, each level of government provides different levels of services. We organize local government such that residents with similar service interests have local a government representing those interests. Recalling what the village and town offer for service, in Potsdam, there are two vastly different sets of service interests, hence two governments.

And finally

5. “Just stop the bickering.”

I agree that bickering is not a good way to solve problems. We have differing interests and opinions, so I strongly disagree that we should only have total harmony with no disagreements.

In our American democracy, we disagree with each other. We discuss. We lobby. And we make changes. We represent our different visions and interests.

That’s what our town and village governments do.

In Potsdam, were there no disagreements, there would never have been reform on the county sales tax distribution.

This disagreement led to a discussion on how to distribute the revenue more equitably. In real dollars, this has brought nearly $500,000 per year to the Village residents.

In another example, the productive discussion over a disagreement on the sharing of the cost of services brought about a change where the town and village residents now each share in 50% of the cost of recreation, where formerly the village residents paid 66%.

The existence of both a village and a town provides residents a choice of where they want to live, what they want their community to look like, and what services they want to receive from their government.

Become involved, informed, and make a choice.

Dissolution is a tremendously complex issue that can divide communities.

I would urge residents to thoroughly read, understand, discuss and analyze the Dissolution Study before simply casting a vote for or against dissolution.

The study can be found on the web at http://www.vi.potsdam.ny.us/Dissolution/disStudy.PDF.

Michael Weil

Potsdam