Weather museum would add to region's cultural institutions
DAN MEYER Political Columnist
Mark me down as the latest to join a growing list of supporters for the idea of creating a weather museum in the city of Buffalo.

The creation of a weather museum that would be based downtown would help to serve as a valuable addition to the cultural institutions we already have here in Western New York.

The potential to increase tourism to our region would only help further enhance the long-range thinking some of our elected officials have about establishing Western New York's reputation as a tourism destination.

The support for such a facility is widespread, with local governmental bodies across the area unanimously passing legislation that supports the idea, which will hopefully now gain support from federal and state officials and even representatives from the National Weather Service.

Need further proof as to why the museum should be built here? Forget about the Blizzard of '77 and last October's "surprise storm." It turns out the founder of the National Weather Service was Gen. Albert James Mayer, who was a surgeon and founder of the U.S. Army Signal Corps.

Where did Mayer live? Where else? Buffalo.

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Whenever terms such as "Nixonesque" and "shady" are being thrown around, it should cause your eyes and ears to tingle just a bit, especially when it comes to how business gets done when it involves taxpayers' money.

But when those phrases are followed with direct references to the Giambra administration, it's time to sigh, roll your eyes and mutter, "here we go again."

King Joel and his cronies engaged in another knock-down, drag-out fight with the Erie County Fiscal Stability Authority earlier this month, with Giambra's financial experts spending nearly three hours arguing with control board members about how to proceed with what is estimated to be about $80 million in uncollected taxes.

Without regurgitating the ugly exchanges that took place between members of the control board and Giambra's financial gurus, let's just sum it all up as the latest chapter in the rocky relationship between the control board and the Giambra administration.

Anthony Baynes, Sheila Kee, Stan Keysa and the rest of the control board don't trust Giambra and his fiscal wizards. Can't say I blame them.

But when will enough be enough when it comes to the constant bickering about virtually every action item involving the county's finances?

Acrimonious? Rancorous? Resentful? Distrust? Those are all good descriptions of the true feelings both sides hold for each other.

But I'd like to counter those with exhausted, drained, fatigued and plain old sick and tired as phrases that best sum up what the general public is thinking about the snippy and argumentative relationship of the control board and Giambra's administration.

So as we begin a new month this

week, let's view it as a sense of accomplishment knowing that in less than seven months, Giambra's lengthy run as the county's top elected official and his disgraceful posturing and shoddy treatment of his constituency and virtually all who come in contact with him are that much closer to coming to an end.

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From the "where-are-they-now?" file comes the recent re-emergence of former Chautauqua County Executive Mark Thomas.

Thomas, who ruled Chautauqua from 1998 to 2005, was appointed earlier this month to the top regional job for the state's Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation, a position held for the past 12 years by Ed Rutkowski, the former Erie County executive.

Insert your own "political patronage post" joke here.

(Daniel Meyer is a columnist for the Weekly Independent Newspapers of Western New York. WIN is a consortium of 19 community-based weekly newspapers in Erie and Niagara counties with a combined paid circulation of 75,000 homes, providing collaborative advertising and editorial support for member publications. To provide feedback on this column, visit www.wnynewspapers.com. Opinions expressed here are those of the author.)