Bee Heard

(Editor's note: Call The Bee at 632-0390 and record a one-minute comment on our Bee Heard line. It gives readers an opportunity to comment quickly and candidly on items of local or regional interest. Callers do not have to identify themselves and no callers' names will be used. In the interest of fairness and good taste, The Bee will not publish derogatory or insulting comments. All comments are by our readers and are subject to editing.

.I recently took my family on a trip to Toronto; we went beyond Toronto, it was about six hours round trip. The only area in which their DVD player was skipping was on Maple Road between North Forest and Flint Road. They did a great job on the other area of Maple Road. Now it would be nice to see something get done about that area.

.Again, Smallwood achieved excellence in the Amherst School District. Parents should have the option to send their children to Smallwood, as long as they are in the Windermere School District.

.I find it very interesting that Amherst Supervisor Satish Mohan was able to find $7 million in budget surplus to dip into in order to avoid raising taxes this year, whereas last year, when he took over from the previous administration, he falsely claimed that there was a $4 million deficit he was left with and saddled with. All this has been proven time and again to be wrong, that Mohan didn't have a $4 million deficit left to him. In fact, that was proven wrong and Mohan never recanted that tale. Mohan has not been able to reduce spending and has found no cost-saving measures. In fact, Mohan has squandered any potential savings through his ineffective leadership and inability to bring union contracts to a quick close.

.Is The Bee going to print anything about Kathy Kaminski, who is running Amherst Highway Superintendent, and Chris Collins, who is running for Erie County Executive? I know nothing about these people, and have no background information. I'm wondering if The Bee is going to print backgrounds on some of the candidates, so I can know better how to vote. (Editor's note: All area candidates have been asked to submit profiles and campaign statements to be published Oct. 31.)

.It is at least three years since slick local real estate developers smooth-talked their way to convince the Amherst Town Board permission to rake the wooded area and pond located along Ellicott Creek on South Cayuga Road. The plan was to build a Niagara-on-the-Lake model quality housing within earshot of the noisy Thruway overpass. This ill-conceived and unrealistic plan was protested by current residents of the street, but to no avail. Now, there is one small house sitting on the deserted field of overgrown brush and wild grasses waiting to be sold. How many more such developmental disasters does Amherst need before stopping this insanity of putting potential profit ahead of the enviro nment?

.A couple weeks ago I called about Chang's Restaurant and the odor coming from the garbage that they couldn't reach because it was blocked. After my comment was printed, we noticed that the smell was gone. So, I want to thank anyone over at Chang's who read the comment or whatever; it's nice to know that sometimes there is a good ending to a complaint. Thank you very much.

.I can live with a budget that the town supervisor is proposing because I know that Satish Mohan knows that there will be no surprise like last year's October Surprise. So why keep a healthy reserve fund? Let's bring that down to the bare minimum, so it will look like he is reducing the town budget. Then, I wonder what sleight of hand he will pull next year with his budget projections.