On December 13th, 2001, the Hector Clean Water Initiative delivered a petition signed by 825 Hector residents to the Town Board. The petition calls for the Town Board to enact a ban on high pressure hydraulic fracturing. The room was filled to overflowing with Hector citizens supporting a ban. Outside, those who couldn’t fit inside held a candlelight vigil.
We had hoped that the Town Board would acknowledge the large number of signatures calling for a ban. After all, how often does a small Town Board receive so many verified petition signatures on an issue that has filled the meetings for month after month?
But their reaction was different, as Town Supervisor Ben Dickens dismissed the signatures as insignificant. Attendees pressed the Board to answer how the voices of so many Hector residents could be ignored, and who is it that the Town Board is representing with so many vocally opposed to fracking?
Click here to view a photo essay of events that evening.
The story was covered by the Ithaca Journal, and WAMC radio, the large public radio station in the Capitol region and Hudson Valley.
Ithaca Journal article
WAMC radio story (listen to the audio for full version):
Friends,
Despite our best efforts, tonight we did not get enough votes to win seats on the Hector Town Council. What we did achieve was remarkable – we came within 20 votes (1.22% of the vote total) of winning the Supervisor race, and within 53 votes (1.76% of the vote total) of winning a seat on the Town Council. Not a victory, but an impressive show of strength and commitment from all of us in Hector who worked so hard on this campaign.
Think about it – we began this campaign very late in the game, and built it as a pure local grassroots effort with no help or support from Democratic, Republican or Conservative parties. And yet against all odds we came within 20 and 53 votes of defeating popular, established incumbents.
It hurts to have worked this hard, to have come this close, and still not prevail. But other elections are coming next year, and the year after that, and the year after that. What we’ve begun here this year is something enduring and powerful that, if we take care of it, will grow and win those elections still to come. It’s hard to put a name on it, but we felt it as we reached out to neighbors for the first time and found common ground; we felt it as we surprised everyone, including ourselves, that we could get 120 people to show up on the first snowy night of the year for a town meeting on fracking; we felt it as we discovered we aren’t alone, but that there are hundreds of us, living in every part of Hector, who feel so strongly about protecting our beautiful town.
Now our job is to continue what we’ve begun this year. We keep talking to our neighbors, keep working together, keep spreading the word, keep making ourselves heard. Tonight we may be disappointed, but we are not defeated. We have only just begun.
-Bo Lipari
Official election results for Schuyler County here (scroll down for Hector):
http://www.schuylercounty.us/2011GeneralResults.html
For those of us who support using Hector’s Home Rule rights to protect ourselves from an incursion of heavy industry, this week’s election presents a simple calculus. We need to elect as many Town Board members as possible who will support Home Rule protection. At the Town Council level, this comes down to some very basic math – with only 3 contested seats this year (Supervisor and two Council seats), each of your 3 votes must go to candidates who oppose fracking.
For the Town Supervisors seat – While I believe Ben Dickens has served the Town of Hector faithfully for many years, his position on fracking is wrong, and will allow the gas companies into our community unimpeded. Bob Fitzsimmons firmly supports exercising our Home Rule rights. Vote for Bob Fitzsimmons for Hector Town Supervisor.
For the first Town Council seat, I ask for your vote. By now, most of you have met me and know how hard I will fight to protect this wonderful place we call home. For the first Town Council seat, vote for Bo Lipari.
For the second Town Council seat, vote for Cliff Yaw. Of the remaining three Council candidates, Cliff stated at the Schuyler Candidates forum in Watkins Glen that he would support a Moratorium on fracking. While some of his other statements have been more ambiguous, I believe this comes from Cliff’s sincere desire to hear and reflect on all sides of the argument before committing to a specific course of action. Cliff is a man of few words, particularly in public debates and forums. But he does understand the concerns about fracking and I believe he will come to fully support our position on Home Rule protection. For the second Town Council seat, vote for Cliff Yaw.
This has been a tremendously exciting campaign, with so many of you working so hard for our common goals. Tomorrow, elect the 3 candidates who will Protect Hector – Bob Fitzsimmons, Bo Lipari, and Cliff Yaw.
Get out to vote on Tuesday. No kidding people, this is the most important Town Board election of your life.
