THANK YOU!

Despite all the obstructions thrown in her path Donna Felker was certainly very successful in her attempt to become a Voice for the Ilion Taxpayers. Lets list those obstacles.

• No initial legal notice of Election ( about 40 days late)
• No final legal notice listing candidates, polling places, times of election, etc.
• Machine at the Municipal Building late in opening causing people who were on their lunch hour being denied the right to vote
• Miscounting absentee ballots.
• Failure to be sworn in at the traditional time, immediately after election.
• Misinformed about the time of the meeting Wednesday, June 20, 2007.

So much for the Mayor's policy of Open Government!

Just in case you didn't know, Bob Applegate has been replaced as Village Attorney. Bob's salary was $25,000 plus benefits. His replacement will will make $6,000 a month or $72,000 a year. At the same meeting , The Evening Telegram, which has been the official Village paper for as long as anyone can remember, has been replaced by the Utica Obsever-Dispatch. That means that all legal notices will now appear in the O-D costing the Village probably about double. One wonders if all these things are in the budget. Perhaps it's time for one of the Mayor's audits? He can surely find one that will provide the results he needs.

After all is said and done, this sign says it all!

DONNA FELKER WINS BY MORE THAN 100 VOTES

Congratulations to Donna Felker on her decisive victory on Tuesday! Out of less than 700 votes cast, Mrs. Felker won by about 125 votes. Certainly, a clear indication that the Ilion voters are not that thrilled with the current administration.

Latest news out of the Municipal Building is that the Village Attorney, Robert Applegate has resigned and been replaced by an out-of-town attorney at about triple the salary. Mr. Applegate salary was $25,000 a year plus benefits. The new attorney will make $6,000 per month or $72,000 a year. Add that to the new Clerk's salary and you come up with $79,000. Wonder where that's going to come from! Hope Ilion Taxpayer is reading this.

Plus that, tonights Evening Telegram runs an add that the local Video Store is closing and moving all their business to Herkimer.

ILION TAXPAYER?

Dont' you wonder who "Ilion Taxpayer" might be? Sounds an awful lot like the Mayor. The same Mayor who has failed to follow thru on anything in almost a year.

First time in memory that you have to get an appointment to see the Village Clerk. Municipal Building not secure enough to collect taxes even though the Police Department is within earshot!
Lots of talk about consolidation but no action!

Don't you wonder which member of the Village Board will be the next Village Engineer or Village Adminstrator? Smart money bets on the Mayor!

FINALLY MADE THE PAPERS!

We finally made the papers! John Gilmartin's letter has been in both the Evening Telegram and the Observer-Dispatch. In this morning's Sunday edition of the O-D there was also a small notice giving some election information.

This, in no way fulfills the Village Clerk's obligation to publish a legal notice in the Village official newspaper, The Evening Telegram. This is the second time New York State Election Law has be violated by the administration.

NO NEWSPAPER COVERAGE

Both local newspapers, The Evening Telegram and the Utica Observer-Dispatch have both chosen to completely ignore the June 19, 2007 Village of Ilion election. The committee helping to elect Donna Felker has decided that the only way to get her message out to the people of the Village is through a blog

We will attempt to have new information on this site daily and would ask that you pass the blog address on to all your friends and neighbors!

DONNA FELKER'S RESUME

Donna Felker worked for over twenty years for US Airways both At the Oneida County Airport and the Albany International Airport.

Her first job with the airline was a Training Instructor where she researched, prepared and instructed in the Reservation Training Programs. From there she became the Reservations Sales Supervisor where she assisted with the hiring process, organizing and conducting interviews and information sessions. After transfer to the Albany Airport, she became the Customer Service Supervisor and charged with training, supervising and directing personnel to insure superior customer service.

Mrs. Felker served on the Village of Ilion Municipal Utilities Board where she and other members attempted to consolidate services and job positions for better fiscal management within the Village until it was very apparent that the present administration led by Mayor Cushman and supported by the Village Board was not interested in any advice or suggestions from the Board. At this point, most of them resigned!

It certainly is apparent that Donna's work experience and participation in the community makes her the best candidate to fill the vacancy created a year ago when Doug Richard resigned.

BIRTHDAY PARTY AND RALLY

Come on down to the Ilion Marina on Flag Day, June 14, 2007 and help Donna Felker, candidate for Trustee in the Village of Ilion, celebrate her birthday and Flag Day. The party begins at 5:30PM and goes to who knows when!

I hope all goes well.. I read with interest several items in the past few days in the ET. The splash for the Solar Bees without the thanks going to Clark Scharett for all his work on this projet and the Gatehouse prject, and the reervoir 3 revival.. I will write to ET. Also the off-duty officer at the High School- should be lots of issues there- liability; pay; who gets the job; etc. I also am concerned about the tax paying only at Partner's Trust; also the appointment of Mr. Jennings by the Board- was MUB involved? did no one review his past issues and the concerns and costs they raised? Grace

Lack of Publicity

Here it is, May 27, 2007, better than a full month after the Democratic Caucus and about two weeks since nominations were closed for Independents and neither paper has mentioned the Ilion Election, who might be running or even the time and dates.

These are the same papers who will lament the low voter turnout come Election Day.

They often wonder what the major problems are in the Mohawk Valley, perhaps they should take a good look at themselves!

NEWS FROM THE CAMPAIGN TRAIL

Donna's campaign signs arrived Friday, May 3 and a group of people spent most of Saturday morning gettin them around town to the many people who had requested them. Donna also picked up several more signatures on her quest to get a second line as an Independent on the ballot

Here's what the signs look like.

The Committee also has scheduled a "Meet the Candidate" night Monday, May 7, 2006 at 7PM at London Towers. Come and down and meet Donna !

More events are in the planning stages so keep tuning in to stay up to date

The Democratic Caucus was held last night at the Ilion Municipal building and Mrs. Donna Felker was nominated by an enthusiastic group to run for the open Trustee position in the upcoming Village election.

Mrs. Aileen Sweeney served as Caucus Chairperson and Mary Lupinski was the Caucus Secretary.

When the official business of the caucus was concluded, Donna talked about her experiances in the business world and her qualifications for the job of trustee. Campaign plans were also discussed and all those present were urged to help get out thier friends and neighbors to vote for Mrs. Felker.

The official paperwork of the caucus will be filed with the Village Clerk in the next few days and the race will be on!

The first campaign event, A Meet the Candidate Happy Hour, hosted by Barb Wainwright will take place Friday night at Mr. and Mrs. Wainwright's home.

Attempts to get some publicity in either paper go unanswered! Ordered lawn signs today and they should arrive by the end of next week. Have 50 ordered, so any one who would like one just let us know.

Donna Felker announces candidacy

Donna Felker kicked off her campaign tonight at the Carriage House at Forge Hill Estates. several people were on hand to lend support and to encourage her in her bid for a seat on the Village Board.

With just 69 days until election we need to get moving in order to get her elected!

SEVENTY ONE DAYS

With just seventy one days left until the Village of Ilion election and with the great amount of difficulty encounterd trying to get some sort of newspaper reporting, we decided to try a brand new form of communications, blogging!!

We will, in the next 71 days, attempt to give you an assesment of where the Village stands, what direction it is headed in and what the candiadates say.

A new group, was suppose to hold a press conference today to anounce a candidate, but because of the strange weather affecting the Mohawk Valley, the date has been changed to April, 19, 2007, at 5:30 PM at the Carriage House at Forge Hill Estates. Hope to see as many people as possible there.

The Village is scheduled to hold a budget hearing this evening at 6:00 PM. Makes it rather hard for normal folks to get there, but certainly much easier for the Mayor and Board.