Help Wanted

He knows when you've been naughty...

Most people are probably unaware that Hamlin’s previous Building Inspector, Larry Gursslin, has filed a notice of claim against the town. This is a lawsuit. Gursslin, who was publicly fired without reason, is suing for defamation and libel. He wants his job back and his reputation restored.

Gursslin was fired, without cause given, in a very contentious public meeting of the Town Board on October 13, 2003. Many, many residents liked Larry and were concerned about the lack of justification for the firing. Two town board members, Ed Evans and Paul Rath, were visibly upset with the lack of process and the secrecy used by Supervisor Warner in the matter. Both men read detailed objections into the public record.

One item Gursslin is suing for is his earned vacation pay! Can you imagine that? The town of Hamlin has refused to pay him what he earned! Can you imagine how you would feel if an employer did that to you? Plenty of local people have been laid off, but no self respecting company would be so low as to try to screw an employee out of money they’d already earned.

Except in Hamlin! What could possibly possess the Supervisor to be so cheap, so mean and act so illegally? Well, anybody who knows him well can answer that. Supervisor Warner is a mean, vindictive, punitive bully. If he’s is mad at you, there isn’t anything too cheap, too stupid or too ill-advised that he won’t try if he thinks it will hurt you.

Many people who know the Supervisor in a surface way might find that hard to believe. Isn’t he the friendly, jocular man that brings new residents a big hunk of strawberry cake when they move into town? Isn’t he the chuckling giant who dresses up in costumes to entertain the kids at town functions? Yes, but he has a bad side.

It’s Santa’s evil twin- Bad Santa.

Bad Santa is the obsessive, micro-managing, secretive politician who thinks Ed Evans harmed him by running a primary and is paying Evans back by blocking him from serving on the Conservation Board (“After what he did to me?”) No matter how detrimental this act is for Hamlin.

Bad Santa is the chuckling goon who can’t string a sentence together that makes any sense either on paper or in person. He’s the one who fumbles and mumbles through budget hearings casting aspersions on anybody who questions the numbers.

Bad Santa is the Machiavellian autocrat who thinks he has unlimited, unrestrained power. He thinks he can fire employees at will and to hell with the legal process. He’s the guy who will sacrifice our zoning laws just to inflict a little pointless disturbance on misperceived political opponents.

Unfortunately, Bad Santa runs the town.

Don’t be shy…

More From the Interview!

Winner: Best Line Taken Out of Context!

In response to a question about gay marriage…

Supervisor Warner: “I understand the, the…um, other, ah… you know, ah…ah…the gay feelings…”
* * *

Referring to towns giving equal benefits to same sex unions:

Supervisor Warner: “…I think that’s something they will have to work out. If there’s something that you could unilaterally do, with that, um, I won’t really have a problem with that as long as, ya know, it was agreed upon by everybody. Um, this particular thing, right now, um, basically…I…I…guess it’s forcing awareness to it…um…as far as I’m concerned right now, I agree with you, there’s no law that says that the law does not state, uh, two, ah, that…that there is a marriage between, uh, same sex people as a husband and wife and until they resolve that, there’s really not much the Towns can do, other than to go along with that.”
* * *
There you have it. If everybody could just unilaterally agree on something- then we’d all be happy! And he claims he’s not a politician, oh peshaw!

I think I did say this about that. At least, I assume so.


NOTICE: From time to time, The Blog has employed sarcasm, irony, farce, even audacious mendacity in it’s reporting of Hamlin news. We do not deny this.

However, what you are about to read is real. It is a word for word transcription of part of an interview that Mayor Josephine Matela of Brockport and Supervisor Austin Warner of Hamlin gave to the SUNY College radio station. The interview aired this past Sunday, March 7th at 8:30 PM on 89.1, The Point.

The Blog guarantees that this question and the following answers are EXACTLY as they were spoken. We have the tape to prove it.

Reporter: We now know that it is definitely John Kerry running for the Democrats and George W. Bush running for the Republicans. How do you both see this race playing out heading into November?

Mayor Matela: Well, I’ll just say there are 200 and some days left and , ya know, even though I am a politician, I hope that they will use good judgment and not try to bring up the past. I don’t think people are interested in what happened in the past, people wanna know, “What are they gonna do for…the people now? What are you gonna do for the economy? What are you gonna do for jobs?” That’s what we wanna know about. We don’t really wanna to know what happened in the past. Austin, what about you?

Supervisor Warner: (Chuckling) I’m, I’m not a politician, I’m a Supervisor!

Mayor Matela: Oh, ok! (Laugh)

Supervisor Warner: (Chuckling) And…and…and I agree with ya. I think what you do is, you go on your record. And I think George Bush ..uh..has..a good record. And I think…uh…the, the facts have to come out, and…and…the other, uh, in-fighting, back-biting, and all that... the, that unfortunately comes…uh…should not be there, it should be just strictly on the facts…of what ..uh, Bush thinks...uh…ya know, of what…he thinks he’s gonna do, and what he’s done, and also what Kerry thinks that he can do differently. And then, you go by that-- the facts.

Jimmy Duncan, Freelance Sheriff

You Got A Problem?


A bitch? A complaint? There sumthin' ya don't like?

You better see Jimmy Duncan, Freelance Sheriff. See Jimmy don't get paid but he's lookin out for ya. For all you folks. The little people, them ones that caint help themselves. He's a watching. He'll fix up yer problems right away. Yes, Mam. And at no charge too.

There aint no problem too big er too small you caint call on Sheriff Duncan.

It aint political, it's PERSONAL!

Mike's our Hero!

Hooray for Mike Marchetti

Mike Marchetti continues to be a hero in Hamlin. First, he organized the opposition to the DeMarco “Millstone” development. He got the maps, posted them in his store, wrote letters, made phone calls and generally sounded the alarm for all his fellow residents.

Last week he topped himself. Mike was the fireman who was injured fighting the trailer blaze up in Hidden Creek. Somehow a fire hose came loose and struck Mike in the back, breaking his shoulder. The injury is severe, but not life threatening. He has to rest and will be examined on Thursday to see if he requires surgery.

Mike is sore and bored. If you know him, you know that he is a ball of energy. Being in pain, and forced to rest, is hard on the guy. Mike likes to keep moving. If you see him try to cheer him up.

Despite his injury, and the normal discomforts of the Hamlin Meeting Room, Mike showed up for last Monday’s Planning Board meeting. Maintaining his diligence about Millstone, Mike makes sure he is present when the PB meets. Those who follow local politics know that anything can happen, at anytime, so you’d better beware- and you’d better go to the meetings!

Mike was there and he hung in very well even though the public hearings went on for a very long time. Eventually, the PB began the “Conceptual Review” for a subdivision on Town-Line Road. This plan calls for building 30 homes, in two phases. These are upscale houses ($180k+) and are on existing water and sewer lines. The property was recently rezoned from Commercial to Residential-Medium. If successful, it should raise considerable tax revenues while consuming few local resources.

Amazingly, for a project which is so straight-forward, the PB members began to beat it up. Conceptual approval is, in essence, not approval of anything, it is the opening step of the review process. The purpose is to identify, for the proponent, glaring issues which would be derail the project. This plan had no such issues. Nonetheless, the PB started to leverage issues in a way that would obviously delay the project’s start. Co-Chairman Breslawski (the guy who doesn’t live in Hamlin, and hasn’t for more than 10 years!) spearheaded the effort. Breslawski described subjecting the plan to a prolonged and unnecessary SEQR process which isn’t even appropriate at this stage of the process. He was obviously trying to apply irrelevant concerns to the project in an effort to delay it.

(As an aside, the reason Breslawski and his sidekick James Nesbitt were beating up on the project is because one of the developers, the popular Jim Beehler, is also a partner in the Senior Housing project planned for Rt. 18. The developers have retained former Hamlin Building Inspector, Larry Gurrslin, to help shepard the project forward. He is capable because he was the mayor of Hilton when a similar project was built there. Gurrslin, you may recall, was abruptly and unilaterally fired by Supervisor Warner and is now suing the Town. Since the developers are associated with Gurrslin the Supervisor has instructed Breslawski and Nesbitt to give them a difficult time on any of their projects. It is also reported that Warner called one of the developers on the phone and told him outright that “You won’t get anything done!” as long as Gurrslin is associated with the project!)

Marchetti, who may have known some of the dynamics at work in the meeting, sat listening quietly. Eventually he heard enough and spoke up. “Why are you doing all this stuff now, with this project?” he demanded. “You didn’t do any of this with the Millstone plan,” he reminded them. “You just talked about it for a few minutes and passed it. How come you didn’t look at it like this?” His questioned floated in the air like a big black cloud.

The Planning Board, aware that they are being scrutinized by the public, beat a quick retreat. Chris Schlieter, in a stage whisper to the staring Chairman, said, “This isn’t a public hearing. We don’t have to answer.” This was then regurgitated back to the public.

Mike, obeying the rule, sat silently for a few minutes more then left the proceedings.
Hip, hip, hooray! Mike Marchetti saw what was happening, and saw the injustice in the application of the rules. He saw how easily the Demarco Plan was handled compared to this one, and had the courage to speak up. Mike challenged the Planning Board. He sent them a message- “We are watching you! We know how you work and we don’t like it!”

Good for fireman Mike. Where there’s smoke, there’s fire.