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Quick thoughts to get us through the winter blahs
Editorial
With winter clutching the region in its icy grip, this is the time of year when the season begins to take its toll on residents. The calendar today reads "Valentine's Day," so we would like to warm your hearts with these two reminders: Daylight Savings begins in just three weeks, and spring is only 35 days away. While we're at it, we would like to share some thoughts with our readers.
Better late than never: The Town's Winter Recreation Celebration finally concluded last weekend, nearly two months later than planned after the original weekend in December was wiped out by too much winter. Last Saturday's music in Stiglmeier Park attracted a nice crowd, and the fireworks were also a hit. Sunday's events in the Recreation Center at Town Park also drew rave reviews as the public had an opportunity to sample more than 20 different cookies and more than a dozen recipes for chili. Public skating, with a canned food donation serving as admission, also drew a strong crowd. The town has done a wonderful job refining the annual event over the years and the Department of Youth and Recreational Services appears to have hit its groove in staging the event.
Landfill cleanup: The Village of Depew is facing a $2.2 million price tag to clean up its former municipal landfill adjacent to Cayuga Creek. The site, which hasn't been active in more than 45 years, is loaded with lead, a metal that can cause serious damage to both humans and wildlife. However, a lack of documented cases of health ailments linked to the former landfill has some officials wondering why the site needs to be cleaned up. While we sympathize with village officials who are wondering how to pay for the cleanup, we'd like to remind them that this is not a situation where one can afford to "bury their ehads in the sand." Lead is not a metal to fool around with, and one health case could wind up costing the village even more in the long run. This, unfortunately, is just the latest example of today's generation paying for the mistakes made by previous ones.
Library hours on the rise: Last week's edition of the Cheektowaga Times included the good news that additional hours have been added at the Julia Boyer Reinstein Library on Harlem Road. Additional funding from Erie County has allowed the facility to add four hours per week to provide more service to the public. We hope that this is only the beginning of restoring funds to our libraries. Cheektowaga is still reeling from the loss of the north and south branch libraries during the 2005 county budget crisis. Still, ushering in new hours at a popular library is fantastic news. Libraries are a great source of knowledge and entertainment and they don't discriminate; they are open for enjoyment by all, regardless of race, creed, nationality and financial backgrounds. This is
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