Mohan should vote on Maple project

A recent letter by Mr. Bill Fleming called on Supervisor Satish Mohan to recuse himself from voting on the redevelopment of the former Buffalo Shooting Club because the supervisor was an employee of the University at Buffalo, which supports the project. Why is that a conflict?

The property is not owned by UB, and it in no way will benefit from the project.

The only entities that will directly benefit from the project are the Sweet Home School District, which will receive $1 million annually in school tax payments; the Town of Amherst, which will be paid $500,000 a year in property taxes; the state and local governments, which will realize more than $3 million a year in sales tax revenues; and Amherst taxpayers, who will realize all of these benefits in addition to the cleanup of a contaminated brownfield located along one of our town's main thoroughfares.

Mr. Fleming is correct: "The position of town supervisor in Amherst is one of great importance and one that requires the utmost integrity." Mohan has proved he is a man of integrity. Recusing himself from voting on a project that does not involve any sort of conflict of interest would be a disservice to the community and totally against his responsibility as supervisor.
Steve Whitton
Ruskin Road
Amherst