CHEEKTOWAGA, N.Y. (WKBW) — Newly-elected Town Supervisor Brian Nowak hosting his very first town hall-style meeting at Maryvale High School Wednesday night.
Nearly two dozen residents took advantage of the opportunity to share their concerns with elected officials and voiced their concerns about everything from road conditions to development projects.
It is the first of a number of town halls hosted by Nowak.
One of the issues the town is having right now is discussing bonding for infrastructure work, highway drainage and sanitary sewers and road paving, according to Nowak.
"We need to maintain some savings, we need to stabilize our long-term debt and we need to fix our infrastructure. We can do all of those things together," Nowak told 7 News' Pheben Kassahun.
He said this task will not come without a challenge.
"We've had a few meetings now, where these issues have come up, including a 4-hour meeting solely devoted to bonding and after all that work, even putting proposals up to the Republican party-- I'm a Democrat-- even putting proposals up, they have bee defeated," Nowak added.
Regardless, members of the community Kassahun spoke with shared they are looking forward to what his new leadership has to offer.
Cheektowaga resident Sara Marmion is concerned about roads.
Marmion said, "Potholes, just the general maintenance. The board is split right now between the Republicans and the Democrats. The Republicans have really been blocking what Brian has wanted to get done this year, so far. I just want to ask him how he plans to work around that."
Resident Suzanne Costa is newly retired and is ready to roll up her sleeves for her community.
Her main concern is the water situation in the town.
Costa said, "A lot of the streets are being overrun with all the stormwater and all the sub pumps dumping in the streets. My street and driveway, half of it gets flooded because our storm sewers cannot handle all the water. I have to make sure that I park my car all the way back because of the water in the street and because of the inadequate storm sewage."
Tommy Sweeney said he has several properties in the Cheektowaga area and wanted to see what is going on at the local government level
"We love Cheektowaga. It's a great community. I think the effects of a lot of the things we're talking about like road maintenance and things like that are concerns of ours. We want to make sure our tenants are happy, healthy and safe in our communities. I want to see how they're going to go forward with addressing these issues," Sweeney said.
As Nowak steps into his new role, he is hoping to invite residents to have more face-to-face discussions about their concerns because he feels this is a more proactive approach.
