Sample Ballot

Click the ballot to see a larger version

Addie Russell Drops the Puck for the Privateers

Addie at the Alex Bay BCRC from Jim Cummings on Vimeo.

Sign Ordinance Hearing WWNY

In case you missed the WWNY coverage of the public hearing held on 10.25.10



Link to the story on WWNY

WDT: Sign Law Could Use Tweaking     Jefferson County's Planning Board advised Alexandria Bay to continue refining its proposed zoning law for signs. 

Refine?  Tweak?  The Planning Board is being very generous in their assessments.....

Election Day 11.02.10

Will be an exciting day for the Village of Alexandria Bay.  The NY 23 race between incumbent Bill Owens and challenger Matt Doheny will no doubt keep many locals up all night.  On the local level, there are 2 Democrats running: Gary "Critter" Williams and Roger Jobson.  The Republican party is supporting incumbent trustee Danielle Jury and Bubba Stephen Derrigo.

If you recall, Bubba Derrigo was a village trustee but he resigned in 2008 for reasons that are vague.  I am sure the majority of you can see through the vagueness.  I read in this weeks TI Sun, that Derrigo has a letter of support from another former trustee who also resigned.  Imagine.... a quitter writing a letter trying to get the voters to support someone who resigned.

Also in this weeks Sun is a letter from  Democrat Stevie Jarvis begging the tax payers to support him through write-in votes.  Jarvis did not receive the Democrat party nod during this years Caucus which was chaired  by Richard Drake. Democrats Gary "Critter" Williams and Roger Jobson are the only ones that have the Democrat Party Support.

It is encouraging to see a race where the trustee positions are not being run unopposed.

"Laissez-faire" Sign Ordinance

Laissez-faire translation to English: Let Do, Let it Be, or  Leave it Alone!  It implies freedom from restrictive regulations from the government.  This ordinance is way to restrictive.  It even controls what you can put on the inside of your store windows [home windows? This ordinance is for the whole village, not just the downtown district.]  Over the next few days,  I will be putting up some audio from last nights public hearing.  If the Village Board gets their way, these might be the last signs the board need approve:

Till then, just say Laissez-faire

Change in Sign Ordinance and Speed Limits

By now, most of you have read about the New sign ordinance, and I hope that all of you drivers have noticed the new village speed limit.  It was recently changed from 30 mph to 25 . Change can be good, especially if the ordinance or law that has been on the books do not currently satisfy the needs of the residents and/or  business owners.

We have had a sign ordinance in place since the early 90's. For the most part it has sat dormant for many years, only occasionally being used. Recently, the sign ordinance has been dusted off and used  as a reminder to business owners, just who is in charge of this village.  So the sign ordinance that was seldom used had to be modified and made more strict.  A very restrictive ordinance that only benefits the lawyer that got paid to put his legalease on it.  And the elected officials that want to bully the business owners into bankruptcy [not really, but it sounds good].

The speed limit that used to be 30mph and not enforced is now 25 and will probably be treated just like it was before the change.  All these little changes [including the waiving of the open container law for events]  are strangling our little Honky Tonk Town.  Like it or not.... that is what we are, that is what keeps our taxes lower than most villages our size or smaller.  The only real change we need will be on November 2nd.  Oh! Start making plans for change in November 2011.






Follow on Facebook

Addie Russell Meet and Greet in A-Bay

 Laid back with friendly chat.  Some serious questions were asked too.


Meet and Greet with Assemblywoman Addie Russell from Jim Cummings on Vimeo.

Sign Ordinance Revised! Again!

Here is the link to the final revision of the "Sign Ordinance".  The Public Hearing is set for Oct 25, 2010 at 5:30pm at the village community rooms.  A hard copy has been given to the Chamber and the Library.  Any questions can be directed to any of the village board members or committee members  Ron Thomson or Brad Millett.

Who is behind Patty Ritchie?

From tonight's gathering of local democrats at the Sand Bay Inn...

Darrel on Skelos Espada Monserrate Ritchie from Jim Cummings on Vimeo.

Beer in the BAY

Good Plan? from Jim Cummings on Vimeo.

Fender Bender?

NOPE!  Follow up to the story I did a couple of days ago...


Crash Hit and Run from Jim Cummings on Vimeo.

Follow this story on Facebook 

It is one thing to blog about news or public information but when you start posting about someones personal situation it speaks VOLUMES about your scruples!

Once you are elected/appointed as a public official, your life becomes an open book
notice how many walk away scott free. And how many more incidents are NEVER reported, because of the position or who they are

Everyone should be treated the same and it should not matter who they are or where they work. If you take on the job as a public official you should pay even more attention about what you do

Riverwalk Status 10.13.10

Finally the Riverwalk Project is back in safe waters....


Riverwalk Back on Course? from Jim Cummings on Vimeo.

Mayor Interviewed: Everybody Talks Nobody Listens

For what it is worth... the mayor was interviewed by a reporter from YNN after tonight's meeting.  Of course you can not hear much because nobody seemed to care that the mayor was being interviewed.  Any guesses who the loudest person[s] in the background is/was/are/were?


Mayor interviewed at Meeting from Jim Cummings on Vimeo.




Another interview by Jessica Shaw from Channel 7

Poor Judgment and Bad Timing?

News usually streams at a steady pace.  Usually!  I am not really interested in all the "hear say" about marital problems, domestic squabbles, or even acts of canine cruelty.  What makes me more curious is the timing of all the events and the anti- climatic Breaking News Head Line on the Watertown Daily Times:  Alex Bay acting judge charged with leaving scene of accident

Lets look at this chronologically, starting with the most recent event.  The Breaking News Headline hit the online edition of the WDT at:

First published: October 11, 2010 at 5:42 pm

Last modified: October 11, 2010 at 6:28 pm

I am going to intentionally skip over all the events that may or may not have occurred on Sunday October 10th on Co. Rt. 1.

Saturday morning I was made aware that this hit and run took place.


The WDT reports that the Clayton Police finally got around to making formal  charges sometime on Saturday October 9th.

According to reliable sources...formal charges were issued at the Clayton Court @ 4:45pm on Friday October 8th.

The Hit and Run happened on Thursday October 7th  7:45pm.


It takes 4 days for the story to make it to the online edition of the WDT?   Will this story sink into obscurity?  Why does it appear that the Clayton Police and the WDT were stalling? What is the main reason for leaving the scene of an accident?  Judging from all that happened I would say it is poor judgment by all those involved.

River Hospital Foundation Festive Evening

Back in July, the River Hospital Foundation sponsored a fund raising  event ..... Festive Evening.  One of the events was a Live Auction.  Watch the slide show to see why 12 people played bidding wars to win this prize.


Dinner on the St. Lawrence River from Jim Cummings on Vimeo.

Dear Town Board of Alexandria

The Village Board of Alex Bay is asking you for a "cash support" to help recover from the Upper James St Dock reconstruction project.  I have heard that the mayor "thinks" that a 50 to 60 Thousand dollar contribution would be the least you could do....  For the last several years the village has ignored that the revenues from the docks have not been what they should have been.  It was not till this past summer that the board implemented accountability safe guards to insure that all dock fees were collected and accounted for [this only happened because of the dock crisis.]  This year dock revenues have at least tripled from previous years.  Same number of boaters as the previous years, except this year the dock fees  are fairly and accurately collected from all boaters.  I see no reason that the Town of Alexandria should contribute any amount of money for the Upper James St. Dock.  This would be frivolous spending and  unfair to the taxpayers of Plessis, Redwood, and surrounding Township areas.  Furthermore, village residents pay both village and town taxes.  I URGE Councilmen Williams, Beaudin, Durand, and Hunneyman, as well as Town Supervisor Millett to vote NO for a contribution of any amount to the Village to offset the Upper James St. Dock project.

Riverwalk Update

 The audio is from the 9.28.10 VB meeting:

Riverwalk Update from Jim Cummings on Vimeo.

From the VB meeting held on 9.28.10

Thousand island Winery Oktoberfest

Random video from 10.02.10 Oktoberfest

Senator Aubertine Campaign HQ

This video is the full version of Senator Aubertine's speech at the October 2nd opening of his campaign HQ.


Official opening of campaign headquarters 10.02.10

Proposed Sign Ordinance?

Here is the latest news regarding the Proposed Sign Ordinance, via email that I received yesterday:

Jim

Here is what the committee came up with and is recommending to the Board.  The meeting for Monday (10/5/10) has been canceled as you are aware and was rescheduled for the 19th of Oct.  That date is not do-able for Attorney Gebo and the Board wants him to attend.  On Monday 10/5, Attorney Gebo, Trustee Jury, Trustee Roy, Ron Thomson, Kay Doheny and Brad Millett will meet and review the attached sign recommendation line by line.  It is considered a work session.  Attorney Gebo’s office will notify County Zoning of the Village’s proposal and the Public Hearing will be set for Oct 25, 2010 at 5:30 pm.  That date is likely to be approved at the Oct 12^th Village Board meeting.

The Proposed Sign Ordinance can be viewed by clicking HERE 

The link above does not include a cover letter from the committee  that was attached to the proposal.  That letter can be seen below:

From blog photos 2010