Hunsinger & Legg Run Again

This past weekend, Trustee Scott Hunsinger and I headed up to Lakeview Cemetery just south of Brockport to “compete” in the Harvest 5K. The last time Scott and I ran together, it was a called a campaign, which is more of an endurance event than a 5K. For the metric-impaired like myself, a 5K is about 3.1 miles. Before Saturday, I had never run a race.

Running, like most every sport, has a lot in common with politics. In the case of the Harvest 5K, the Sweden Town Board was responsible for staging it, and did a wonderful job, by the way. But the parallels are more general than that. Goals, for example are important in both. And having realistic goals instead of wishful ones can make the difference between success and disaster.

Being my first race, I had no idea what to expect from myself. When I started passing other runners, I began to mull over my objectives: first and foremost, to chug through the race without injury in under a half-hour. My stretch goal was to cross the finish line in under 26 minutes.

This is how I typically approach challenges, whether in sports or work. I’ll set a standard for performance, one that’s reasonable given the circumstances—some of which are out of my control—and then I’ll set a higher mark to strive for.

Being the freshmen trustees, Scott and I frequently revisit the unwritten to-do list we compiled while running for office and since being elected. There are some things that we feel the village must address, like the former Kleen Brite properties or hiring personnel to perform the functions of former Village Manager Ian Coyle. Then there are other tasks that, while important, rise to a lesser level of significance.

That’s why right now front and center for Scott is the future of 200 State Street. On my desk is the critical task of finding Brockport’s next treasurer. While the task for my fellow trustee is a marathon, my top job at the moment is a sprint.

This division of tasks seems, based on the results of the Harvest 5K, appropriate. I ain’t braggin’, but my official time was 25:45 and change—meaning that I crushed my stretch goal and finished 15th. Scott, on the other hand, clocked in at over 33 minutes.

The Next Chapter in Brockport Housing Standards

This past Monday the village held its second public hearing to receive input on recently proposed code revisions. Of greatest interest to those in attendance were the possible changes to chapter 36 of the village’s code, which relates to housing standards. Specifically, the point of updating chapter 36 is fairly straightforward: to ensure better the safety of those who reside in Brockport.

Chapter 36 also drew the majority of input—most of it thoughtful—back in July during the first public hearing dealing with these code updates. Several speakers at that gathering shared a concern about the amount of power that proposed changes to chapter 36 would give the village’s code enforcement officer. Others identified technical flaws in the writing, mostly tangled prose or incorrect references to sections that had been renumbered or removed during the editing process.

Less credible were comparisons between the village board and the Third Reich. One animated gentleman’s lively address likened the Nazis’ forced registration of Jews to the proposed registration of rental properties, which I found to be nearly as illogical as it was insensitive. While hyperbole isn’t unwelcome at public hearings, I do subscribe to the generally accepted belief that whatever is said reflects on the speaker.

In any case, the village, in response to concerns that had been raised at the first public hearing, further modified chapter 36. The public hearing earlier this week afforded another opportunity for interested parties to comment on the re-revised draft. Again, most of what was shared with the board was constructive.

One viewpoint that was expressed perhaps two or three times was that the village board ought to delay a vote on chapter 36 to give the new trustees, Scott Hunsinger and me, a chance to “get up to speed.” While I’m sure my fellow freshman trustee appreciates the sentiment behind such a suggestion as much as I do, you’d be hard pressed to find someone who puts more effort into preparedness than Trustee Hunsinger.

Both he and I offered suggestions for chapter 36. We reviewed several versions of it. We communicated with the village’s counsel. We exchanged thoughts with others who had a hand in its revision. Of course we now have attended two public hearings on the matter too.

Whether the next step for the village will be to adjust chapter 36 again or to go ahead and vote on it, I’m ready. And I think Scott would say the same.

9/11: Why We Remember

In a small room of his wood shop hangs a framed certificate that my father received while serving in the Air Force in the early 1960s. I recently asked Dad about how he came by this citation, and he said that it had followed a sticky mission from the base in Peshawar, Pakistan, where he was stationed. “Everyone on the plane got one,” he said, matter-of-factly.

Yet I can’t imagine much was matter-of-fact about Dad’s military occupation. For his airman’s paycheck, he was one member of a small crew that flew from an unpaved runway at the edge of civilization with the goal of crossing over the southern border of the U.S.S.R. for the explicit purpose of intercepting Russian radio transmissions, which my father would translate.

The day he earned the certificate on his shop wall, Dad’s plane was escorted out of Soviet airspace by a pair of MiG-17 fighters that evidently had been scrambled to intercept the intruding enemy aircraft.

Fast forward a half century and from 8 a.m.-8 p.m. tomorrow Brockport firefighters once again will stand in remembrance of the events of September 11, 2001. Their vigil will pay respect to the 2,819 lives that were cut short—among them, 403 firefighters, paramedics and police officers—when hijackers crashed two planes into the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in Manhattan, a third into the Pentagon, and a fourth in Somerset County, Pennsylvania.

The honor guard, posted at the Firefighters’ Memorial Monument at the corner of Main Street and Park Avenue, is a solemn reminder of a horrific occasion that I believe is felt more deeply by those that serve, as my father did years ago in our country’s fight against communism, and as every uniformed officer and emergency responder does now in an age of global uncertainty.

There is, of course, much to separate my father’s time in the Air Force from the experiences of those who responded to arguably the most catastrophic attack ever on U.S. soil. However, for me, one always prompts thought of the other.

Dad, who was just an enlisted kid at the time, got on the plane. He did his job, probably not knowing what danger might lie above. At least once (he’s not telling), he was lucky to come home, if you can call a dusty, 110ºF military outpost “home.” I’m sure it never crossed his mind that Peshawar and the surrounding area, which he’d explored on horseback, was the cradle of the Taliban and the ideology behind 9/11.

Likewise, the brave men and women of the New York City Fire Department (FDNY) who were called to the Twin Towers even as it burned also did their jobs, likely never considering the danger above, never for a moment pondering the enemy that had prompted their response.

So many members of the FDNY, as will be recalled tomorrow, didn’t come home. And so we remember them in acknowledgment that ours is a way of life protected by people who at times are called upon to do jobs that most of us lack the courage to do. We remember them in appreciation of their sacrifice to a nation that traded the civil defense drills of my father’s generation to the terrorist threat level warnings of this generation. We remember them in recognition of their rightful place in America’s history. We remember them because they are heros.

Student Badly Hurt in Fall

Several news outlets already have reported on a story—still unfolding—regarding an 18-year-old college student whose neck and back were seriously injured after apparently falling from a second floor window while at a Main Street house party in Brockport shortly after 2 a.m. Friday morning. The young man who was hurt remains in a medically-induced coma at a Rochester hospital. When he does regain consciousness, he’ll wake to face the possibility of paralysis.

This tragedy has touched three communities: the village, where investigation into exactly what took place is ongoing; the College at Brockport, where the victim had just entered his freshman year; and Caledonia, Livingston County, the young man’s hometown. Sadly, there is nothing any of us in these communities can do but weep.

This afternoon, Brockport Police Chief Dan Varrenti and University Police Chief Bob Kehoe of the College at Brockport hosted a press conference related the incident. Listening to the pair field questions, I thought about the family and friends of the young man involved, and how answers, though important, likely will never soothe their pain or give them peace. Fact is, for them what happened was a life-changing moment that luckily almost none of us ever will have to contemplate, much less comprehend.