To the Editor:

While I support the eventual dissolution of the village of Potsdam, I don’t think that now is the right time to do it. The town government doesn’t understand what it is that makes the village thrive. The town’s perspective would change if it were in charge of the village, but recent events have shown that the town is mired in an erroneous view of the past, and it won’t be able to change quickly enough to avoid serious problems.

Recently there has been a developer who wants to build an apartment complex just north of the village, and yet would like to have access to village water and sewer. The village is perfectly willing to provide this, but for a variety of reasons would like the deal to include annexation into the village. The town thinks the village isn’t being flexible, and trots out the example of how the village did not provide water and sewer to Walmart.

What actually happened in that case was that the village and Walmart reached an agreement for provision of water and sewer, but the plan involved the potential for annexation at a later date. Because of this, it was the town that refused to go along.

In relation to the apartment complex, the town is in the process of rezoning a huge chunk of land north of the village, using the oxymoronically named Planned Development Overlay, a designation which allows anything that the planning board decides is okay. Is this appropriate? The town doesn’t even know: it doesn’t have a Comprehensive Plan. Such a plan, created using a public process, with public input, would lay out a vision for the future of the town.

It is the lack of a Comprehensive Plan for the town that makes for such uncertainty in the event of the dissolution of the village. Actually, it makes the future of the town outside the village uncertain even without dissolution!

With some work, this uncertainty can be overcome. It’s time for the town to do this work that it has put off for so long. The town has already worked with the village on the dissolution study—now it’s time for the two governments to work together on a joint Comprehensive Plan.

This will be a great way for the town to learn what is essential to the future of the village. That, in turn, will assure the future of the entire town.

Will Siegfried

Potsdam