Published: May 16, 2008 06:52 pm            

CHEERS & JEERS: May 17's best and worst

CHEERS

• RESOURCE CENTER: Don’t call it a police substation. The new Niagara Falls Police and Community Resource Center at the corner of 18th Street and Linwood Avenue is much more than that. While the center will be home to a police substation manned by a patrol officer, it also will serve as a clearing house for governmental and public service agencies to reach North End residents. Falls Block Club Council President Roger Spurback summed up the facility pretty well during last week’s grand opening: “There are resources at Niagara Falls Memorial Medical Center, at City Hall, at the police department, but a lot of people don’t go to those places. So we are bringing the resources to them.” Funded by the city’s Department of Community Development, the facility should give the area a pretty big boost.



• FAMILIARIZATION TOUR: This weekend, about 200 area residents and business people will be taking in the sights at the falls for free this weekend. Why? To be better ambassadors in promoting all the area offers to visiting tourists. Niagara Rises, a local grassroots organization dedicated to helping in the city’s renaissance, is partnering with three major tour companies to offer a free familiarization tour. Having someone proudly describe the area’s attractions from experience has to be a great sales pitch to unfamiliar tourists.



JEERS

• HERITAGE DESIGNATION: Isn’t this just how things go in the Falls? On Thursday, President Bush signed into law the Consolidated Natural Resources Act, which officially made a strip of land from Niagara Falls to Youngstown a National Heritage Area. That’s great, right? It would be if a federal appropriations bill had also been passed to fund the program, which is eligible for $10 million over 10 years. When will those funds become available? No one seems to know right now. Once funds do become available, a 17-person commission will have three years to craft a management plan for the area. Maybe we’re just being a bit impatient here, but it looks like we’ve got a ways to wait on this one.



• LEW-PORT ELECTION MAILINGS: Oh yeah, they’re back at it in the Lewiston-Porter School District. During a school board candidates night Tuesday, board hopefuls discussed mailings sent out attacking Jim Mezhir and Bonnie Gifford. Sadly, it’s become a common tactic in the district over the years and we have no reason to believe it won’t get worse as Tuesday’s election edges closer. While they attack Mezhir and Gifford, such negative mailings discredit and cast Bob Weller and Ed Waller in a poor light — no matter who’s behind them.

        

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