Cheers and Jeers: May 26, 2008

May 26, 2008 04:52 am

— CHEERS: to the Moriah Town Council, the Port Henry Village Board and the Port Henry Fire Department, which tried -- apparently unsuccessfully -- to team up on the proposed new Moriah Town Justice Court building. Multi-use buildings and consolidation of services always benefits the taxpayers, and the people in Moriah had that in mind in planning the new building. Unfortunately, a June 23 deadline for submitting plans for the courthouse to the state seems to rule out including the Fire Department, and probably an additional structure will have to be financed for that purpose. We give all involved credit, though, for thinking of the taxpayers in trying to get everyone accommodated with one purchase. Several other local communities are working on similar consolidated facilities, and we're sure some of those will come to fruition.
JEERS: To the inconsiderate employees of businesses in the Wall Street area of Plattsburgh, who are flinging used hairnets to the wind when they end their shifts. Some of the workers are required to wear hairnets, and residents of Wall Street told us they find them caught in the bushes and plants around their homes. Think what it must be like to have to fish used hairnets out of your shrubbery several times a week. To some people, a used hairnet might not seem such a vile thing. To others, though, it would be as welcome as ... well, a used tissue, let's say. In any case, no one should conclude that simply dropping it onto the ground is an acceptable practice. We hope those workers will show a little more consideration in the future.
CHEERS: to the U.S. Customs and Border Protection for trying to get word out to cross-border travelers on how get to Canada and back with the fewest headaches. The department sent out a news release, which the Press-Republican carried, giving advice on how to avoid difficulties. The border crossing gets criticized sometimes for not having enough columns open during busy times. The public generally isn't aware of impediments to staffing arrangements, but criticisms are inevitable from people sitting in a car waiting for their turn for half an hour staring at numerous unoccupied booths. The news release sent out by the department shows it does care about the plight of the motorist trying to move as quickly as possible from one country to the other. We will caution the border agency, however, that its Web-site calculation of the wait time at the Champlain-Lacolle crossing doesn't seem to be keeping "real time." Through one busy holiday weekend, the wait time stayed steady at "20 minutes" when it was actually more than an hour.