Congressman Higgins Announces $24,700 for Evans Center Volunteer Fire Company

Today, Congressman Brian Higgins (NY-27) announced that the Evans Center Volunteer Fire Company, Inc. has been awarded $24,700 in federal Homeland Security funding in the sixteenth round of Assistance to Firefighters Grants Program (AFGP) awards for fiscal year 2007.

“Each and every day our firefighters fulfill a selfless mission and put their lives on the line to save the lives of their neighbors,” said Congressman Higgins. “This funding provides our local first responders with additional resources to protect themselves and the communities they serve.”

The fire company has been awarded this grant under the AFGP Operations and Safety Program which makes funds available for training, equipment, personal protective equipment, wellness and fitness, and health and safety modifications to stations and facilities.

Established in 1933, the Evans Center Volunteer Fire Company provides comprehensive fire suppression, rescue, fire police, public safety education and advanced life support emergency medical services to the Town of Evans community. The department responds to some 600 emergencies each year, protecting a 10-mile stretch of the New York State Thruway and serving approximately 1,500 residential and 150 commercial and industrial customers in the Angola Fire Protection District.

The fire company will use the funds to purchase a new state-of-the-art cardiac monitor and defibrillator, along with other AEDs-Automatic External Defibrillators. The Evans Center Fire Company is the sole Paramedic-level volunteer EMS provider in their town. These new units will ensure that every first response vehicle and their fire station will be equipped with these life saving tools for cardiac emergencies.

Over the last several years Congressman Higgins has hosted fire grant workshops where participants are invited to learn first hand from a DHS Fire Grant Specialist how to put together a qualifying application. All applications are then submitted to DHS and go through a non-partisan, merit based review ranked by factors established by a panel of fire service professionals. Over the last two years, fire companies in Congressman Higgins’ district have received over $5 million dollars.

The 2007 program, which Congress appropriated, and President Bush signed into law, includes $490 million in direct assistance to firefighters to improve the effectiveness of firefighting operations, firefighter health and safety programs, and to establish or expand fire prevention programs throughout the United States. The Department of Homeland Security’s Office of State and Local Government Coordination and Preparedness (SLGCP) administers the program, in cooperation with the U.S. Fire Administration.

For more information about the grant program please contact Congressman Higgins’ office at 852-3501.

Dr. Mohan has been asking the newly elected members to the Town Board if they would vote in line with him to fire the Town Comptroller as well as the Town Assessor.

As of November 30th his only supporter is his ‘shadow’ Council member, Shelly Schatz.

Each of the 3 new members want proof of the Comptroller and the Assessor’s wrong doings. Dr. Mohan could not produce one shred of proof.

CONCERNED CITIZEN :

I saw nothing in Benderson’s application to the NYS Brownfield Cleanup Program or submitted Remedial Investigative workplan indicating clean-up to residential standards (they stated clean-up to commercial standards). The state will allow 2nd floor residences in a site cleaned up to commercial standards (but not on ground level). They will leave plenty of lead and other stuff in the ground. Also, I didn’t see a discussion of the perpetual groundwater monitoring wells and specialty drainage outlet system to prevent pollution escaping the site. Who pays to maintain, monitor and fix these? Usually outlets are public improvements handed over to the town? I don’t think we need to pay any more fines to the NYSDEC for polluted groundwater and runoff. I also believe that participation in the BCP means that Benderson will not be liable for any pollution after the “clean-up.”

The residents of our community have a right to express their feelings about developments, pro and con. The following letter was addressed to our Town Board members concerning the Maple Road proposed development project.

November 14, 2007

Members
Amherst Town Board
5583 Main Street
Williamsville, NY 14221

Dear Ladies and Gentlemen:

We, the professional and lay leaders of the Jewish Community’s largest organization in Western New York, are writing to you in your capacity as the ultimate decision makers in the evolution and development of the Town of Amherst. This is a highly unusual request. We have previously come before you on a wide variety of issues. But we come today because of a matter before you of critical importance to the Jewish Community and to the citizens of the Town of Amherst.

The question at hand is the proposed Amherst Town Centre, a mixed use development project at the former gun club site on Maple Road. We support this project wholeheartedly. Our support is on a strategic level. We do not feel that it is in our province to discuss issues of taxation, planning or land use. To the contrary, we trust the Town will negotiate the proper and beneficial terms and conditions for such a project. As this is a private development, we are requesting no special dispensation.

Our concern lies in another, larger area. We are thinking strategically about the Jewish Community, its current investment in infrastructure and its future in the Town of Amherst. Today, Amherst is the home of Western New York’s Jewish Community. This was not always the case. The Jewish Community’s history is that it has migrated from the East side, to North Buffalo, to Tonawanda and now to Amherst.

Over the past quarter century, tens of thousands of Jews have invested tens of millions of private dollars into our Jewish Communal facilities in Amherst, making the Town the base of our entire infrastructure. Our concern is that in order for our Jewish Community to hold onto our Amherst base, we need to welcome and embrace privately financed innovative developments in established parts of the town; it makes all the sense in the world.

Our next generation of Jews, along with the hundreds of professionals being drawn to the region by UB and the Buffalo Medical Campus, will be looking for new, upscale housing, designed for integration with the community. This sophisticated, worldly group wants, and has experienced neighborhoods with integrated stores, services and houses contoured to a different lifestyle. The proposed Amherst Town Centre project is responsive to these demands and expectations.

The project under consideration is virtually at the center of the Jewish community’s physical infrastructure, including the Jewish Center, Weinberg Campus, Kadimah School and all our major temples and synagogues. This proposed mixed use development would re-invigorate and shore up that infrastructure.

Let us explain the dynamics. The tens of millions of Jewish charitable dollars that created regional and national centers of excellence, such as the Jewish Community Center, the Weinberg Campus and our major temples, require ongoing charitable re-investment and constant upgrading. Without adjacent community support to adapt and stay current, institutions deteriorate, degrade, and are eventually sold off, generally at basement prices and to groups less able to subsidize excellence. In this scenario, all of us lose. The thousands of non-Jewish Amherst citizens who benefit from these excellent services (and a vast proportion of our participants, members, residents and clients and not Jewish) will be short-changed. Tax receipts on new upscale housing will be diminished, economic vibrancy and all manner of related services and activities will move to another community. And Western New York sprawl will accelerate.

We are aware that some individuals, especially neighbors in the immediate vicinity, have expressed concerns and reservations about the project. This is to be expected. But we wanted to communicate to you, our elected officials, our support for this significant enhancement to our town. We believe this project will be in the short, medium, and long terms interests of the Western New York Jewish Community, which align so clearly with those of the Town of Amherst. We request, therefore, that you approve the Town Centre project.

Thank you for your consideration.

Sincerely,

Hyman Polakoff, Chairman, Board of Directors

David M. Dunkelman, President & CEO

Congressman Higgins and Citizens Campaign for the Environment Host Great Lakes Roundtable Discussion

Buffalo, NY – Congressman Brian Higgins (NY-27) and the Citizens Campaign for the Environment welcomed representatives from local, state and national organizations to an open dialogue on issues important to the future of the Great Lakes.

“The Great Lakes are our region’s most vital natural resource,” said Congressman Higgins, a member of the House of Representatives Great Lakes Task Force. “Historically, the lakes shaped this region as a port welcoming settlers, commerce and growth. The long-tem health and vibrancy of this fresh water source is fundamental to the future of our environment and quality of life for those who will enjoy the lakes for generations to come.”

Organizations attending the meeting included: the United States Army Corps, Sierra Club, Southtowns Walleye Association, Buffalo Niagara Riverkeepers, Great Lakes Sports Fishing Council, University at Buffalo Environmental Law program, Great Lakes United, Seneca Nation, Audubon NY, Buffalo Audubon Society, Jamestown Audubon Society, NYS Department of Environmental Conservation, NYS Attorney General’s Office, and the US Fish and Wildlife Service.

Issues discussed at the roundtable ranged from water quality, invasive species, and fisheries to environmental research, water diversion and habitat restoration.

“Citizens Campaign for the Environment praises Congressman Higgins leadership fro convening federal, state and local environmental leaders to tackle the challenges of revitalizing the Great Lakes and our local economy,” said Brian Smith, WNY Program Director, Citizens Campaign for the Environment.

Citizens Campaign for the Environment (CCE) was formed in 1985 by a small group of concerned citizens who recognized the need to provide public involvement in the course of advancing stronger environmental policy. Today, after 20 years as a not-for-profit, non-partisan advocacy organization, CCE has grown to an 80,000-member organization with offices in Farmingdale, NY, White Plains, NY, Albany, NY, Syracuse, NY, Buffalo, NY, and New Haven, CT.

Congressman Higgins has been a leading advocate for protection and restoration of the lakes. Earlier this year the Congressman introduced H.R. 3331, a bill to prohibit as a banned hazardous substance, certain household dishwashing detergent containing phosphorus. When discharged into waterways phosphorus causes excessive growth of weeds and algae which rob the water of oxygen that fish need to survive, limit recreational use of waterways and create foul odors. He is also a cosponsor of the Great Lakes Collaboration Implementation Act, the Beach Protection Act, the Clean Water Restoration Act and the Water Quality Investment Act.

So, we sit and stare at a screen for hours at a time. Computer screens, TV screens, cell phones. We are not an active society on the whole. The payoff is - more people are obese. Are we OK with that? Is it a reality? According to recent studies our health is paying the price, although there is a glimmer of hope on the horizon.

“Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, a progressive illness that permanently damages the lungs, has become a major killer in women as well.”

“Obesity rates in women have leveled off and stayed steady since 1999, long enough for researchers to say the plateau appears to be real. And, they say, there are hints that the rates may be leveling off for men, too.”
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