Published: November 01, 2009 11:03 pm      

POLITICAL NOTEBOOK: Quality crop of candidates

I’ve covered some crazy and not-so-kind campaigns over the years.

I’m happy to report that this year’s Legislature races weren’t like any of those.

The candidates I dealt with — Jason Murgia, Ric Marasco, Dennis Virtuoso, Mark Onesi, Nick Melson, Vince Sandonato, William Ross, John Ceretto and Dan Antonucci — all kept it civil, avoided personal attacks and offered some interesting ideas about how to make county government run better.

I was actually somewhat impressed, especially by some of the newcomers who didn’t come off as party tools, but rather as energetic, smart and competent people.

So, at the county level in Niagara Falls, Lewiston and Wheatfield there are some good candidates this year.

Now, all you have to do is vote.

Fuzzy figures?

Of course, election season is the time for campaign claims.

Some have contacted me to question the true benefits of the contention

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made by Ceretto, Murgia and other legislators from the Republican-led majority that the county’s tax rate has decreased 13 percent in the last four years.

A check of the county’s recent tax rate history shows the rate per $1,000 of full assessed valuation was $8.71 in 2005 and $7.54 in 2009, resulting in a drop of 13.4 percent.

Critics of the claim encourage voters to take a look at the county’s taxable assessed valuation during the same time period, noting that it was $7.74 billion in 2005 and $7.95 million in 2009.

The inference, of course, is tax rates may have declined but assessed property values increased at the same time, negating at least part of the savings for taxpayers.

So long Soluri

As new faces come in, familiar ones move out.

I did a pre-election interview with Ceretto last week in the Village of Lewiston.

The two of us were chatting outside the Brickyard restaurant on Center Street when we noticed now former Mayor Richard Soluri walking along on the other side of the road.

Soluri didn’t stop, he just waved, said hi to Ceretto and kept on moving.

Later that night, I attended Soluri's last official board meeting as mayor.

During the meeting, I thought about Soluri walking along Center Street and wondered just how many times he made that same stroll during his 15-plus years in office.

I don't know him well at all, but it’s evident even to casual observers like me that Soluri loves the village.

Several months ago, he contacted me to discuss a column I wrote in which I implied that a lot of officials in the county seemed to enjoy bad-mouthing the City of Niagara Falls.

He assured me that he wasn’t one of them and said he would like to see the city become as prosperous as it once was.

It occurred to me later that what I wrote probably offended the mayor a bit, not so much because of the message, but for suggesting that his community might not be quite as kind as it should be to its struggling neighbor to the south.

Soluri needed for me to understand that the people he represented had more class than that.

And so he did.

It seems to me the village had a pretty good advocate in Soluri.

He walked Center Street like a beat cop and picked up any trash he encountered along the way.

He got after property owners who weren’t quite living up to neighborhood expectations.

He wasn’t shy about showing pride in his community and he encouraged others to do the same.

As needed, he even took the time to straighten out pesky, know-it-all reporters.

During his last board meeting as mayor, Soluri offered a few words of wisdom for a group of students from Lewiston-Porter High School who were sitting in the audience.

“Whatever you end up doing, work for your community,” he said. “Have pride in your community.”

Sound advice from an elected official who didn’t just talk the talk, but walked the walk.

Birthday wish

Happy belated birthday to my dad, Mel Scheer, a great man and the greatest of fathers. His bithday was Thursday. We spent it together, doing something we haven’t done in many years — watching our beloved Bronx Bombers win a World Series game. It was a blast. Thanks for everything dad and go Yankees!