Thanks for posting this, Lorie. I meant to get to this today and never had time.

I read this one last night. One thing that struck, and maybe I need to read it again to double check, but I found only one scant, passing reference to Genesee County. This seems more about helping Buffalo rather than the whole district. Could that possibly be correct?

Howard,

I think the mentions of "Western New York" are sufficient enough. If you search the file, there is only one mention of "Erie County" in the booklet as well. That tells me Mesi wasn't going to target one part of the district over another. What he was going for was to link Erie and Genesee counties together and say what he would do for the district.

All of the issues Mesi lists aren't specific to one county over another. Higher education, for example, impacts both counties. In Erie County, they have UB and a number of private institutions. In Genesee County, they have Genesee Community College. Mesi made sure in the plan to mention community colleges as part of that higher education plan. That is a very important piece.

He also discussed taxes for farmers and providing fair taxes for those farmers. Genesee County is a farming community and that is something that will impact the county.

There are many other parts of the plan that apply to Genesee County. Some might only apply to Erie County and others might only apply to Genesee County. But for the most part, Mesi did a great job at coming up with a plan that would be a blueprint for the whole district, not just one part of it or one locale.