In a front page article, USA TODAY spotlights both Kevin and our cause.
Written by National Reporter, Rick Hampson, the piece is a comprehensaive look at how Kevin, our volunteers, and Western New York are leading the nation in local government reform.
Bowing to the will of the people, as expressed in a citizen petition, the Hamburg town board tonight selected Tuesday, November 17, 2009 for our government downsizing referendum. Halleluiah!
In the Town of Hamburg this weekend, I began my fifth government downsizing campaign in the past six months. In the brisk autumn air, it felt terrific to once again visit folks in their homes, talk about Western New York’s yesterdays and tomorrows, and look forward to another historic opportunity for people, not politicians, to decide our future.
This past year, from West Seneca and Evans, to Amherst and Cheektowaga, through Orchard Park and Alden, and finally to Hamburg, I had the privilege of visiting more than 4,000 homes.
I sat at hundreds of kitchen tables, toured many backyards and basements, and most important, listened to countless stories. For the rest of my life, I will be colored by the glow of Western New Yorkers’ warmth. And I shall never forget what I saw and heard.
One year and five months after I asked them, and 19 days after an Alden citizens’ petition required them, the Alden Town Board on Monday night selected a date for a public vote on downsizing. Alden thus becomes the third town in our state’s history in which people, not politicians, will choose the size and cost of their government.
Just returned to the office after attending a Town of Evans board meeting in which they finally set the date for their government downsizing vote.
Western New Yorkers are about to debate an idea.
The idea is that, as we are a great community, we deserve the best local government in existence. And, because politicians have refused to change, people are going to decide whether to make changes for them.
