LYONS – On a beautiful, crisp afternoon after the December 11 election results were tallied Mayor Nicholas Angelo took time to chat about the state of the town.

After the election where the Lyons Town Center and Redstone Village Development project proposal failed, the mayor reflected on why the vote failed.

“We needed to have the town remain as a principal in the deal,” said Mayor Angelo. “You had to give the developers (Pete Dordick and Dave Wickam, principals in Development Partners LLC and the owners of Lyons Development LLC) something in exchange for the town hall project that they would build. The vagueness of the contract created a situation of mistrust.

The board (Lyons Town Board of Trustees) would not have done anything not in the best interest of the town. Perhaps in the future, if there are any projects, we can we get a developer to work with us hand in hand on a new Town Plan.”

The mayor went on to say, “My original suggestion was to have the election for the Lyons Town Center at the same time as the municipal election, and to have the input of the planning commission as well as the Board of Trustees. It would have been a better, more complete process. It is a quasijudicial process, and is compromised after that (joint effort on the part of potential developers and the town government). It is clear that we need a new town hall and a sheriff’s substation and a new, adequate, library. We must ask the town what they want, and go from there.”

Mayor Angelo did not commit to saying whether he would run again or not in the next municipal election.

“Regardless of my length of office, I would never do anything that I felt was not in the best interest of the town,” said Angelo. “My term will be up in April. I would invite anybody that feels they could serve on the board of trustees or perform well in the office of mayor to run for our town government.”

Looking at the future, Angelo said the town could not be short sighted indicating that the 2008 town budget projected 25 housing starts. “In the build-out scenario for the town, if we take the present 2008 town budget, and factor in the possibility, for example, of no housing or construction starts, we get a view of what a town budget could look like in its future. With the possibility of a pending lawsuit, with our housing starts possibly not up to our budget projections, we reach the whole area of the build-out scenarios. You have to understand that when we reach build out, funds impacting many areas of the town budget will no longer be available. So we have a perfect opportunity to have a look at our projections and to see what we are dealing with in this time. The rollout of the 2008 budget, excluding construction, that is, housing starts, shows significant impacts and warrants our immediate attention.”

Angelo said he was proud of the town board and its accomplishments.

“I love this board,” he said.

“It is the one of the best boards we have had. They are very comprehensive in their thought processes and discussion of issues. I would hope that a majority of this board would run (again) and others, regardless of their political affiliation, if they felt that they could do the job, would run for the good of the town.

We’ve done our best to do the correct things in all Town of Lyons situations. You have got to do the numbers. Shortfalls (in the budget) are an important thing to deal with and to understand.”

The mayor added that this board has tackled major financial decisions. “This Board of Trustees has addressed landmark financial decisions, and along with the zoning code decisions, hopefully addressed the critical issues for the future of Lyons. We finalized the Olson property situation, with 10 acres secured and an option on 10 acres more for the next eight years. The board has updated the zoning codes, with a thorough review and reorganization, for the best interests of the town. We hope to pass these updated codes in March. That is a complete code update.”

On the downtown plan, the mayor said he was pleased with the downtown plan committee and its work. “I am very happy about appointing the former mayor, Tim Kyer, to act as a consultant for that entire process,” said Angelo. “He is the chairman.

That is the perfect fit for the job which we need to conduct the downtown improvement plan. We are right on schedule with that process. Our work in the financial area is our main undertaking and has been conducted for the best interest of the town.”

Sapan Rinpoche is a poet and director of the Lyons Itinerant Poets’ Society, an artist and a venerable rinpoche leader in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition. He lives in Lyons.

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