Published: November 09, 2007 10:26 pm            

OUR VIEW: Cheers to right-to-farm law; jeers to low voter turnout

CHEERS



• ELECTION CONDUCT: We braced ourselves for the calls. We were ready to investigate. The weekend before election day? We figured trouble of some kind had to spring up somewhere. Questionable mailers, stolen campaign signs, effigies of candidates hanging in front of local businesses — we’ve seen it all around here in recent years. But thankfully all was quiet the weekend before the election. Perhaps it’s a sign campaigners are starting to realize negativity reflects poorly on everyone running for office. It took until the weekend before the election for that lesson to take root.



• RIGHT TO FARM: Kudos to the Niagara County Legislature for continuing to look out for the farmers of the county. They are a big reason why Niagara County is what it is and will continue to help in its growth. County lawmakers are hoping a new law will make it more difficult for city slickers to hassle local farmers. In case these city dwellers didn’t notice, the farmers were there first. The Legislature on Wednesday unanimously supported a right-to-farm law aimed at stopping individuals living in rural communities from deterring farmwork in their neighborhoods. The right-to-farm law, introduced by Legislature Vice Chairman Bill Ross, C-Wheatfield, was created in response to concerns from farmers like Hall who receive complaints from nonfarming neighbors who do not approve of smelly livestock or noisy farming equipment. Under the new proposal, farmers and nonfarmers will be afforded the opportunity to have disputes resolved by the county’s Agricultural and Farmland Protection Board. The law also requires individuals wishing to purchase property near farmland to acknowledge the presence of farming activities and waive their rights to object to them. In addition, the law gives farmers added protection from having to pay for costly legal expenses in civil cases where the courts rule in their favor.



JEERS



• VOTER TURNOUT: Actually, maybe things were a little too quiet. Yep, we’re going to continue our annual post-election tradition — scoff at low voter turnout. We know, we say the same thing every year. Still, every year we continue to be disappointed with the strong apathetic showing of residents on election day. It’s only the future of the county, city or town at stake, people. We’re aware that many residents had certain candidates penciled in as soon as the primary ended and very few races were actually close, but it’s no excuse not to get out and vote.

        

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