To the Editor:

Yes, Mr. Warr, and yes, Professor Hutchinson, the village is not what it was. But that is not due to bad or lazy village government.

“Downtown” is commercially dead all over the country. And if you want a culprit, you can blame Henry Ford. In our mobile society malls and satellite mega-stores offer concentrated shopping and acres of free parking. The stores we once had in Potsdam will not come back no matter whom we elect or whether we dissolve the village or not.

We have an important choice to make on Nov.8. What it comes down to is this: if you thrive on uncertainty then vote for dissolution because the current town government guarantees nothing, nada, zip. You do not know what you will save if anything or what village services will remain.

One level government makes a certain amount of sense but I think in Potsdam it should only happen when it is concurrent with the election of a new town government committed to making it work.

Arthur L. Johnson

Potsdam