Political Vision Is Not Crony Capitalism and Backroom Deals...

How Windham Can Learn From Greensburg, KS and Build A New Inclusive Future.

While I was attending the April 24th Town Hall meeting, it was disclosed that the Town is going to remove a covenant from a piece of land that is now occupied by the “Little League Field”— this property of approximately 1.6 acres is located right next to our Golf Course[that might be a private club or not at this point]. So, you can understand why this property could be part of a valuable deal with certain private interests in our community, either builders or land developers, still under the false illusion that building our community into some form of miniature Bergen County, New Jersey, will not cause a total market collapse in housing if this community doesn’t have any attractions.

What this shows is that our Town Leadership, especially in the form of our Town Supervisor, lacks a strong Political Vision or Will to achieve the hard type of changes we need to create a multi-generational Community with a viable population base into the future. The covenant on this small 1.6 acres of land is to ensure that this property is for the recreation and use of the town members and others. It was deeded this way in 1963 to the town to ensure that our children, then and into the future, would have access to places of recreation. Now, we might not need it as a “Little League Field” at this point, but our community needs places for other outdoor activities. It is short-sighted to think the only option for this property is a “Little League Field” or private sale. This is a community property, and it should be treated in a way that is best for the entire community! That means we, THE COMMUNITY, have a right to decide how it is managed in the future. Not in a backroom deal that is designed to benefit a few instead of the community as a whole.

Worse yet, the sale of this property is not entirely necessary since March of 2025, Gov. Hochul has made available $20 million for outdoor activities in communities like ours with the “Unplug and Play Grant,” which could easily cover the potential price of this property while ensuring that the community has the ability to explore and develop other potential uses for this community owned property to benefit generations of children and adults alike.

This is a small issue; the facts are our political vision, or lack of it, will also cost us more than just potential recreation in the future. We need to be a proactive government at the local level, seeking approaches that will be sustainable not for 5 or 10 years but 20 or 30 years into the future. We need to think like the town of Greensburg, KS, after their natural disaster in 2007.

Greensburg, KS 2007

This is how Greensburg, KS, looked after an F-5 Tornado destroyed the community in May of 2007. The community lost nearly all of its buildings for its then approximate 1400 residents. Prior to the Tornado, the community was already seeing a population decline, something that had been occurring for more than a century, when the small farming community reached the zenith of its population in 1888 with 2,756 residents. Since the peak in 1888, it’s seen a slow decline to the current level, now roughly 703 residents. However, instead of the entire population abandoning the small community. A core group of people with vision and political will to understand that this tragedy wasn’t an end but a new beginning sprang into action. This change in attitude to what was possible made it possible for the community to rise like a phoenix from the ashes.

Greensburg, KS, Fifteen after the Tornado

The community of Greensburg decided that it would survive this catastrophe and rebuild— many did leave— but those that stayed rebuilt and did so by embracing new ideas and a new political vision. The Town embraced a new, greener future, one where more efficient heating and cooling systems would be the core of their rebuilding plans. They even embraced the construction of a wind-turbine farm. Greensburg is now one of the Greenest places not only in our country, but on the Planet. Much of this change was led by the high school students who demanded and fought to rebuild and to do so in a sustainable manner.

Windham, Town Council, Sept 26th, 2024

This is the power of Political Will and Vision in a small community. If Greensburg’s community had ignored the need to change the status quo, in their community it is unlikely that Greensburg would be a community that still exists today. It would have ignored the necessary funds from State and Local resources that made this transformation possible. They would have seen a massive contraction in their community, economically speaking. This would have led to a radically collapsing population base and ultimately a dead town.

Our Community is facing a slower and more problematic type of essential threat to its existence—declining population in the 20-44 year old demographic. Our current aging population requires more services than it can provide for itself, and our population cannot replace itself quickly enough to meet this demand in the future. This process might take 10-15 years to push our local economy into serious decline, but at that point, the Town will have pushed past the tipping point, and to regain our community’s once vibrant nature will be nearly impossible to achieve in a generation. We will see the long, slow decline into obsolescence, and no amount of wishful thinking or grandiose attempts will be able to save our town from decades of decline in the future if we don’t act now.

This is why our future as a viable town is on the ballot with our election in November 2025. We cannot afford to allow 2 more years of leadership in the role of the Town Supervisor with no cogent vision of the future of Windham or political will to do more than is absolutely necessary.

BULL MOOSE PARTY OF WINDHAM, NY