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Editor:

Spicy

Spicy was taken to Medina Stray Haven. He was to get neutered and returned to me, his owner (Katie Bourke). He escaped from the owner of this shelter on the night of April 6 before his neuter the following morning.

He is lost in Medina from Elm Street and not familiar with the area because he’s from Albion. I am offering a safe return reward for him. He is all up to date on vaccines and not aggressive, but very frightened as he’s only ever been an indoor kitty.

He’s 8 months old, a tuxedo cat and responds to the name of Spicy. We are heartbroken and praying for his return.

Anyone with information about Spicy can reach me at (585) 297-6198 or by email at katiebourke24@gmail.com.

Katie Bourke

Albion

Editor:

The Shelby Republican Committee held its spaghetti dinner fundraiser March 29th at the Knights of Columbus. I would like to say thank you to all that attended, to the Knights for being a gracious host and the various businesses that made donations.

It was a wonderful evening having our endorsed candidates – Scott Wengewicz for Shelby Supervisor, and Mike Moriarty and Vassilios Bitsas for town council member positions –available to answer questions and hear concerns of our constituents.

 As the weather warms up we are looking forward to going door to door to continue introducing the three endorsed candidates and answer any questions you may have as we approach the Republican primary election on June 24th.

Scott is the incumbent for Town Supervisor. He started his position with the Christmas blizzard of 2022, being the 4th Supervisor in Shelby since 2020. In the last 2-plus years he has extinguished many fires the town has been battling. We look forward to seeing more positive leadership from him in the future.

Mike and Vassilios might be new to the political scene, but they are ready to fight for the residents. Both are no-nonsense local businessmen. Mike is the general manager at Pride Pak while Vassilios who lives in the village manages & helps his family with their many restaurants. I have enjoyed getting to know these young men and I believe they will bring a much needed fresh mindset to the Town Board.

As many of you know where there are politics there will be unfortunate drama – at least how it seems in Shelby. I hope you, the voter, will do your due diligence to research and get to know all candidates before you cast your vote.

I would like to invite all persons running in the Shelby Republican Primary to a date in May for a debate. I believe it is important to our town constituents to attend and ask their questions, bring up concerns and be able to hear all persons running express their views under one roof not just read one-sided post cards with no explanation to “facts” given.

Candidates will be mailed an invitation and I will inform the public when a date and location is secured.

Thank you,

Dale Root

Town of Shelby Republican Chairman

Editor:

Four years ago, I ran to serve our great community as a Town Councilman. I promised to be the voice of the people, the watchdog, making sure to shine a light on the dark shadows of government to create more transparency. Talk is cheap when we operate in a results-driven world.

Many of you know me as a straight shooter. It’s dangerous when the political party bosses hand pick blind leaders to promote their power and greed. We pick up enough BS on the farm throughout the year and sheep are useful for when you can’t sleep. We don’t deserve this kind of leadership in Town Hall.

I can look back at the last four years and be proud that the promises I made were kept, which make me accountable to our community. I’m not a bobble-head politician, I do not blindly follow the party bosses. My “agenda” comes from you, the people.

My record speaks for itself. Shelby is not barren wasteland. It’s full of opportunity. We have a majority-controlled government that doesn’t prioritize us but rather prefers status-quo. I have proudly voted “No” when it negatively impacts our community and vote “Yes” when it’s the right thing to do. No one is perfect but I’m proud of the accountability and transparency we have mandated over the last four years.

One of the biggest things I can do as a Councilman is vote on the budget. I have never voted for a tax increase; I routinely seek a tax decrease. In fact, when the majority-led Town Board couldn’t justify their over spending on paper, they justified it through the reassessment. I was the most vocal opponent! Revenue isn’t the problem, out-of-control politicians are!

When the majority-led Town Board wanted to institute email voting on Town business, I led the fight against it so that our community can have accountability and transparency. I was proud to bring our meetings to a YouTube channel so that our community can actively participate even when they are not in attendance.

I’m most often a minority voice but it’s an important voice. This election, we have the opportunity to choose between status-quo and the right direction for Shelby. I will continue to be the champion of our community and not the party bosses. Together, we can leave the BS on the farm while delivering results for the taxpayers.

Ed Zelazny

Shelby Town Councilman

Editor:

On February 28, GCEDC approved the construction of a data center at their STAMP site just outside the Iroquois National Wildlife Refuge and the Tonawanda Seneca Nation’s Big Woods.

Project “Double Reed” will be enormous—900,000 square feet. Hard to picture, isn’t it? Here are a couple comparisons: Marketplace Mall in Henrietta has 804,806 square feet of retail space; the Carrier Dome in Syracuse (now the JMA Wireless Dome) contains 527,320 square feet. Huge.

In addition, GCEDC misleadingly says that the building will only be one story tall—one story that rises 31 or 44 feet. Those are some high ceilings.

Imagine that you are driving through the countryside of pretty farms, fields, and woods. Then suddenly, a monstrous, blockish data center. No (proposed) landscaping will be able to hide it. And even if it could, you will be able to hear the low-frequency hum of the fans used to cool the equipment, a continuous sound, from miles away. Noise pollution has serious health effects—and if it’s bad from outside, it’s got to be worse to work inside.

The Sisters of St. Joseph live the mission of reconciling neighbor to neighbor and neighbor to God. They are committed to the good of the Earth and its people.  At a taxpayer cost of $3.9 million per (projected) job, the so-called benefits of “Double Reed” do not serve the land or the community

Holly Rockwell

Justice and Care for Creation Coordinator

Sisters of St. Joseph of Rochester

Editor:

Mr. Hemingway, I do not know you personally nor do you know me. I am having a very difficult time trusting you and your intentions.

1. I question your loyalty; you were a Democrat for many years and then you bailed on them to become Republican. The question is why ?

2. You praised two board members for the job they are doing. However, are you aware that they are under investigation for code of ethics violations by the town and the state comptroller’s office? Are you aware of a current board member who tried to split the town of Shelby, I’m sure you did. You mentioned Linda Limina has a four-year degree in accounting. She has a B.B.A. (Bachelor’s in Business Administration), not an accounting degree. Google her bio and find out as I did.

Why is it at every meeting she has to grandstand and question the budget when she was a part of its conception? She has questions at every meeting because in her own words, “I do not understand.” Maybe if she did her job that she is being paid for by Shelby taxpayers and quit worrying about what Medina is doing, she would understand.

Are you aware of the thousands of dollars of taxpayers’ money that she wasted for an investigation against her for jeopardizing worker safety – maybe you should. They continuously vote no on anything that would benefit the taxpayers. They tried their damnedest to stop water coming from Royalton at a lower rate because Medina would lose out on the revenue.

It is apparent that their loyalties are not with the town of Shelby, and I assume they have their own personal agenda which is really not that hard to figure out.

As far as the financial record keeping for the town, when you inherit an issue that former supervisors and board members caused, you first have to find the problem and then come up with a solution to fix it. I believe the current supervisor and board tried to address the issue with the Williamson program without costing the taxpayers more money. Unfortunately the Williamson program that the past supervisor and board members purchased was not compatible and they were unable to fix the issues.

As a taxpayer I applaud his efforts to save our tax dollars before they spent more money to get an outside accounting firm. Unfortunately, it did take a long time to resolve the issue. The truth is there is no money missing. So quit crying about past issues that have been resolved and start looking forward.

I also read the preliminary budget for 2025 which had a tax decrease until the two board members that you praise so well got involved and we wound up with a tax increase. These are just some of the reasons I question your loyalty and your intentions. I personally cannot trust you and you will not get my vote.

Steve Mazur

Shelby