The Village of Monroe 'needs new vision'

In April of 2018 my family and I will celebrate 10 years residency in the Village of Monroe.
In those 10 years the current mayor has served on the Village Board as a trustee and has had two terms as the mayor.
I had faith and supported him in both his mayoral elections. I was very hopeful and trusted the mayor. I felt this was the man who would bring this village back to life.
It saddens me to say my faith in this mayor has slowly disappeared over time. I believed him when he personally told my husband and I he would make impactful changes that would essentially revitalize our downtown. As hard as it is to admit, I was wrong. His words would never come to fruition. The actions he supported to fill in the Mill Ponds and take away the waterfall was one of the first things that boggled my mind. He then was attempting to cart away our beloved Korean War Airplane in “Airplane Park” because it was just “too costly.” It took the handy work of very motivated private residents who created the awareness needed to save it and get it to the restored beauty it is today. (If you don’t believe me refer to the article from The Photo News titled “Final Flight” from July 31, 2013).
Additionally, the mayor has also lead us to the unbelievable over development currently occurring in our village: for example, just look at Smith Farm and the attempts to change zoning on North Main Street to Urban Residential Multifamily (URM). This is not a revitalization plan, this is not making positive impactful changes. This is not the landscape of a downtown I thought Mayor Purcell would bring.
Mayor Purcell and his running mate Trustee Chan have had years to put positive changes to work for our village and disappointingly they have not.
These words are hard to write when you had true faith in someone. Inevitably, one’s words are only as good as their action to get the job done and sadly, Mayor Purcell and Trustee Chan have not.
This why I feel our village needs new vision, new hands at the wheel to steer us down a new path. Neil Dwyer and his slate of candidates Carey Baum Alley and Dorey Houle of the Smart Growth Party are the people we need. I encourage all my village neighbors and friends to vote for these individuals on March 20. They have a new vision that will help create a better sense of community. Dwyer, Alley & Houle plan to create a revitalization committee made up residents who will work with the current business owners to improve downtown and take a hard look at every aspect of the village planning and zoning boards. We need new ideas and new people who will put those ideas into real action. My faith has been restored in local government with the election of a capable town board now let’s bring the same positive impacts to our village board by voting for Neil Dwyer for Mayor, Carey Baum Alley and Dorey Houle for trustees.
Thank you,
Veronica “Roni” Connolly
Monroe