To the Editor:

Being involved in this election has brought back many memories for me - mostly fond. I was born in Malone, grew up in tiny North Lawrence, and loved every minute of it. One of the great treats was to make trips into Potsdam and all its cars and bustle - had to do it in the summer, because the car was up on blocks in the winter!

For years after leaving here, I always hoped to get back to the North Country. After years of education plus teaching in Western NY and West Virginia, I got that chance in the early 70’s when I became a staff member right here at SUNY Potsdam. I have owned property here for 36 years (both Town out of Village 5, in village, 31) and remember my tax history very well-some of it good, and recently- painful.

Having said that, let me point out that the Village of Potsdam in the 70’s and for many years after was extremely well run-primarily because much of the government was in the hands of Republican businessmen who knew the “bottom line” and kept us on a steady course with low taxes. We had a succession of great stores -- Grant’s, Montgomery Ward, a whole JC Penney department store, etc. Everything said “welcome” including a wonderful huge sign greeting folks on the outside of the village. Pride!

Today, the welcome sign is tiny and hard to distinguish, but other “signs” are very evident. Properties are run-down because owners cannot afford to keep them up, and have trouble selling simply because of the high taxes on the same piece of property not once, not twice, but three times per year. The result? Investors buy them and rent to students who mean well, but the level of property care and the value of adjoining property goes down.

There are so many things wrong -- the blunders made on our three years late hydro dam; people in the village on fixed income -- it can take 4 Social Security checks to pay those 3 taxes alone; a village government that likes to hide things from the public they are supposed to be serving; and most of all, the village’s absolute refusal to cooperate with the Town of Potsdam on developing anything outside the village limits, even when it would create new revenue sources for both of them and tax relief for all of us who are small property owners. It is an obstinacy that is still very much there even at this late date. They never seem to learn.

So many of us who have lived here for so long would like to see this village return to some kind of “common sense” instead of digging its heels in and making no progress whatsoever. This village has gone downhill for the last 15 years or so, and a revival is in order!

Dick Hutchinson

Potsdam