Murray proposes oppressive property maintenance law

Editor:

It seems in this day and age with all the struggles of life and trying to survive one can never let their guard down about what some form of government is plotting and planning to make life just all that much harder.

Whether it’s the Federal or State government picking our pockets or regulating us into the poor house, the worst enemy most of the time is the enemy within – our local politicians.

There are certain personality types that should never ever be elected or appointed to office but always seem to gravitate there. Are they bad people? Most aren’t, but some are. Hey, I’m just being real.

There are good and bad in all of us and more than a few have a real problem controlling the use of power and others have a real problem speaking up against it. The latter are the “yes men.”

Why am I writing this? Well it has come to the public’s attention that on Nov. 15 there will be a public hearing. The Town of Murray is proposing a property maintenance law. I know from following politics that other towns watch to see what happens in other towns. Every town has a representative on the Orleans County Planning Board. This overreach gets discussed among planning members and code enforcement officers.

Many if not all of us live in Orleans County because we like it here. We grudgingly put up with the high taxes and bad winters because we call this home.

Many of us use our homes and property to suit us and our families. We are from all economic backgrounds and we pretty much get along and live and let live because we like being left alone. We take great pride in our independence, especially from government.

So when the Town of Murray, which by the way has had a lot of bad press in the last year or so, comes up with such a dramatic, far-sweeping type of darn right oppressive and a darn right un-American crackdown on the entire population of its town, it sends red flags all the way to me here on the west end.

Make no mistake every resident in that town will be out of compliance for something if I am reading this correctly. This is Soviet-type power put in the hands and at the complete discretion of your code enforcement officer, even the meaning of the wording. Do you understand the magnitude of that?

Other towns will be watching to see if this passes. Do you want this in your Town? Why exactly do Towns spend this type of time, effort and expense on trying to punish its tax base?

It is high taxes and their inability to spend taxpayer money in a wise manner that is the problem. I won’t be able to attend this hearing. I am just letting you know one man’s opinion on what is public information in the works.

Here is the local law as it is written: Click here. (Editor’s Note: The text of the proposed local law has been removed from the Town of Murray website. The above link connects to the Town’s home page.) I believe it should be struck down by the public in its entirety and the paper it’s written on burned in the trash. What do you think?

Paul Lauricella

Yates