Gaines resident states his goals for serving on the Town Board

Posted 10 June 2018 at 10:09 pm

Editor:

My name is Joseph Gangi Jr; I am running for the Town of Gaines open councilperson seat and I am running in the September 13th Primary Election. Hard work, honesty, morality, objectivity and integrity. These are values I hold dear today.

After 30 years working for the Rochester Police Department, I am retiring this January 2019. I have been the department’s Quartermaster. I managed an annual budget of around half a million dollars. Over the course of my career, I have saved the City of Rochester thousands of dollars.

I met my wife in 2009; we bought a house in Gaines in 2010. We could have lived anywhere but we chose to stay in this town, our town, Gaines. My wife Michelle was raised here in Gaines. We have solid roots.

Our town residents are very smart and I know they share the same concerns as I do. My concerns are simple but extremely important to this community;

Taxes – We need to keep an eye on our town’s taxes. The hope would be to not have them go up. As you all know, politicians all say the same thing, LOWER TAXES.  All I can say is I will work hard to do just that but again, you are smart and know, nothing is guaranteed. I do promise you this; I will work hard for all of us to keep our taxes controlled. We must keep an eye on taxes.

Agriculture (Farming) is the backbone of this community.

1. Agricultural Effect Economically – Farms provide a livelihood for people who work on them. The list goes on and on from machinery, feed stores, transportation, then eventually to us, the consumer. There are multiple professions in between that benefit from agriculture. We must protect agriculture.

2. Agriculture Effect Environmental – When you think of farms, you think of cows grazing in the fields, corn crops, big red barns, and don’t forget about the view over those fields, how beautiful those truly are for miles around. It’s for this reason we chose to live here in our town, Gaines. Also, think about the wildlife that is sustained because these farms exist, I’m sure all you hunters can appreciate that. We must protect agriculture.

Support Smart Economic Growth – This just goes along with agriculture. We must be real careful how and where our town grows as to not disturb the agricultural environment. These are the concerns of many I have spoken to. We must encourage and be conscious of our town’s economic growth.

Smart Spending – Our town is small and most of us, the residents, are not wealthy. We must be smart with the way our town’s money is spent. Again, this goes to keeping expenses down and not being wasteful so that we can keep our taxes low. Money has to be spent; we just need to be smart about it.  We must watch spending.

Our town matters.

Joseph Gangi Jr.

Gaines