To the Editor:

For a number of reasons, I support combining the Village and Town government. I do not believe that we can ‘save our village’ or ‘save our services’ by voting ‘no’ to dissolution.

If the ‘no’ vote wins cost of services will, like everything else, continue to rise. The increased cost will be spread over the 28 percent of Village property that pays for the services. Increased tax rates will cause houses/business to sell at lower than assessed prices. Assessment of village properties will go down, causing Village tax rates to go up further. Services will have to be cut.

There are been a fair amount of new construction in the Town of Potsdam in the past ten years. I would guess that the jobs of many of the people who live in those new houses, as well as those in the older homes, are dependent on one of the colleges, the medical facilities, or the businesses in the village.

All of those establishments are dependent on the village services that the owners of 28 percent of the village property pay for. That doesn’t seem fair to me.

I’m distressed by the fear I hear in so many of the letters and articles that argue against combining the town and village governments.

We seem to have identified most of the major issues that will need attention if we combine, and we have a fairly clear idea of our goals (effective police protection and airport services available to everyone in the town and village, clean village and town streets, etc.) These are solvable issues – and they belong to all of us in Potsdam – not just village people. We can solve these problems with enough focus and the cooperation of good people.

The future is never certain, but I will vote to dissolve the village and trust that we are smart enough to make mostly good decisions for the future of our town in the 13 months we have to come up with solutions to our shared problems.

Nancy Rihse

Potsdam