Benefit honors life, supports research

During the weekend of Oct. 27-29, the Eagle House hosted its first ever "Breast Cancer Awareness Weekend" in honor and celebration of Melissa Reed Chudy. Melissa's son, Robert, worked at the Eagle House until he left for college this fall. In the brief year that Robert worked for us, we had the opportunity and delight to have his entire family become a part of our lives, especially Melissa. Melissa lost her battle this month with breast cancer and this weekend was to honor her and her beautiful son.

We were able to raise over $900 to donate to the Breast Cancer Center at Roswell Cancer Institute in memory of Melissa. I want to thank our customers for their patronage this weekend and all of their generous donations. I also want to thank my staff for jumping into this event with excitement, all of them wearing pink all weekend to help send our message along. I thank Village Desserts for creating our "pink ribbon" cupcakes and most importantly, I want to thank Melissa for all the smiles and laughter ... she will surely be missed.

Tricia Hanny Browne

general manager

Eagle House Restaurant Friendship found in cleanup effort

During times of stress, disaster and other problems, some friends and neighbors step up to help those in need.

A wonderful thing happened to me on Saturday, Oct. 21 when Greg Morog, who lives several blocks down the street and who I had never met, pulled into my drive while I was working in front. He said that he had a birthday party at 2 p.m. at his home but that he would be happy to help me for about an hour. Apparently he had noticed that my back yard was covered with limbs, some of them 6 to 8 inches in diameter. He worked almost two hours and accomplished what I never could have done because of my age. I shall be forever grateful to Greg for being a true "friend in need."

AE "Bud" Low

Sherbrooke Avenue

Amherst Pulling together after the storm

The storm that hit the Town of Amherst, as well as the rest of Erie County, on Oct. 12 may have temporarily marred the landscape of the community, but the kindness of the residents has certainly shown through.

Amherst was particularly hard hit by the unexpected storm, which brought extensive damage to trees, power lines and homes, left many residents without heat and power for more than a week and caused many hardships.

As Erie County legislator representing a portion of the Town of Amherst, I sincerely compliment the residents of this community for their perseverance and patience in this disaster. The residents who stopped into my district office for assistance and those I spoke with shared many stories of neighbors helping neighbors.

I also applaud the leaders of this community who have tirelessly worked together for the safety and concern of the residents, particularly Supervisor Satish Mohan and Highway Superintendent Bob Anderson. The highway and parks department crews and utility companies are doing an outstanding job in very difficult conditions, and I know the residents appreciate their efforts and hard work. I also wish to thank the many fire department volunteers who provided food and shelter for those who could not remain in their homes during the emergency.

Call my district office at 631-8695 if you or someone you know may need Erie County's Social Services and Senior Services. There is no doubt that this unexpected disaster has changed our lives, and I sincerely thank the residents for their strong sense of community and continue to ask for their patience as crews work to restore the town and Erie County back to what they were. Michael H. Ranzenhofer

Erie County legislator

4th District

Accounting system needs retrofitting

Regarding "Wastewater Treatment Plant needs $8.4 million in repairs" (Amherst Bee, Oct. 4, 2006), I am only assuming that Jeff Burroughs has numerous quotes from other townships that have had similar work done west of Albany. Why should there be a bonded repair? The monies should be in the repair monies column in the accounting book on a yearly basis from taxes collected and allocated for same, not counting the monies collected yearly from Clarence and now Newstead for the treatment of their sewage. And believe you me that they both have a lot.

The fees collected from them should reflect their growth and speculated growth, seeing the filtration is for a number of years, rather than yearly. The accounting system that is being used by all of you needs to be retrofitted, so not to be so offensive to the taxpayers of Amherst. There is no bond issue needed in repair of the above.

I bet a closer look at the monies supposedly allocated for maintenance and repair of the sewage plant would allow for the place to be painted, too. Wow, it has been 26 years since it was discovered that Amherst was operating a sewage treatment plant without a million dollar filtration at that time; where does the time and sewage go.

Mr. Ward has a brilliant idea regarding the RFP: the more contractors the better. His suggestions for seeking out cutting-edge technology and application of such is thinking outside the box for this town. Who's to say that the diamond cloth filtration is our answer. What other townships have used it, and what are the total results from the filtering to the cost to operate it and over what period of definite time, not supposed figures, and time? Just divide 26 years of Amherst, Clarence, and Newstead sewage into $4.8 million or less.

Mark Ribic

Transit Road

Williamsville

(Editor's note: This letter was addressed to Town of Amherst Council Member Bill Kindel)

Highway employee is unnamed hero

I have to let my opinion be known in reference to the recent weather emergency in Western New York. I have the highest praise for the efforts of the Town of Amherst and especially the town Highway Department. Of note, an employee of the town not only put in endless hours to insure the safety of the citizens of our community, but also gave every effort to put his neighbors at ease in these trying times. He is an unnamed hero. This includes the selfless contribution of his own time and resources, truly above and beyond the call of duty.

Patrick Zagon

Meadow Lea Drive

Eggertsville

Cleanup crews congratulated

During all the coverage from the October storm I have failed to see our town supervisor acknowledge the town workers in Amherst, in all the departments or the volunteer firefighters, for the excellent job they have been doing since the start of the storm.

Congratulations go out to all the Town of Amherst employees from all departments and the volunteers from the 10 Amherst volunteer fire departments who spent countless hours since Thursday, Oct. 12, answering numerous calls for service.

They received well over 2,000 calls during a two-week period, responding to residents with house fires, wires down, basements flooded, trees that fell on houses, welfare checks on elderly residents, carbon monoxide alarms and EMS calls, auto accidents, roadways blocked by trees or wires, traffic signal problems, keeping streets open, and working on the endless job of debris removal and trimming thousand of hanging limbs.

The town Emergency Services Department, under the direction of Jim Zymanek and Dominic Creamer, set up a command center and coordinated efforts for the fire, police and emergency shelters for the people without power and heat and made sure these shelters were supplied with food.

To the numerous National Grid employees, along with the hundreds of crews brought in from the other areas of the country to bring our area back up and running safely, your tireless efforts were greatly appreciated. Also to the Verizon crews and Time Warner crews working to get our area fully restored.

Peter Strobel

Amherst Many affected during storm

In response to the caller in last week's Bee Heard column regarding the closure of the Amherst Youth Board's facilities during the October storm, I would like to offer the following information. For most of the time, our facilities were without electricity and phone service. Unlike the Amherst Senior Center, which is the official emergency shelter for the Town of Amherst, our youth centers do not have backup generators. Our staff met early in the storm and discussed opening our facilities but not unless we could do so safely. Unfortunately, we had to wait like many other Amherst residents for basic services to be restored.

Our one facility that was operable, the Harlem Road Community Center, was taken over by the American Red Cross as a regional emergency shelter. As part of that effort, our staff helped provide child care and counseling services to the many families who took refuge there. In addition, our staff worked at the Amherst Senior Center during that time providing similar services and in the Amherst town clerk's office, which was deluged with tax payments and understaffed during the storm. Our staff also assisted the town supervisor's office in contacting more than 1,600 seniors throughout Amherst to assess their situations and offer assistance.

Once the Red Cross vacated the facility, the Harlem Road Youth Center was opened to children in the Amherst Central School District during the remaining time that school was closed.

The Amherst Youth Board remains committed to serving the needs of not only children and youth, but all the residents of the Town of Amherst. The actions of our employees, the majority of whom were also without electricity for the better part of the storm, certainly exemplify that fact. Joseph E. Bachovchin

executive director

Amherst Youth Board

Road crews need new plan

In the wake of the storm I have to say the majority of the cleanup has been welcomed and very positive. However, several complaints about the debris removal are issues that have been echoed by many residents I spoke with.

I would rather have it take an extra day or two to remove the debris than block traffic during rush hour when people have to get to work. Also, some crews have blocked traffic needlessly and have been rude and arrogant in confrontations with angry drivers. In one instance, a crew surrounded a young lady and cursed her out when she became upset that they were blocking both lanes of traffic. In many cases there are no flag men or signs. These crews should show better planning and consideration. Andrew Aprile

Elm Road

Amherst