Dirty politics at its worst

Recently I sent the Independence Party Committee Members a letter asking them to attend a meeting this past Thursday night. I advised them that there was some serious issues about this years town board race that needed their attention and the Town Supervisor would attend to help explain some of the issues. I also had Tom Best and Kevin Smardz willing to show up and speak to the committee.

During the week I spoke to about 50 of the committee members and had a fairly good response. About 35 people originally said they would be there and the rest said they didn’t know if they could make it because of previous plans.

Woodlawn Fire Hall and Hamburg Municipal Hockey Association allegedly serves alcohol to minors.

In my search to find the Zawierucha files at the Erie County Clerks office I stumbled across a lawsuit filed by the Drew Family against a Ms. Kapusczak, Woodlawn Fire Company and the Hamburg Municipal Hockey Association.

According to the complaint Ms. Kapusczak was attending a party held at the Fire Hall and organized by HMHA. Ms. Kapusczak is under 21 years old and was allegedly served alcoholic beverages at this party. She then got in her car and was involved in a vehicular accident causing injuries to the Drew Family. She was charged with multiple violations at the scene.

We all know that these things happen all the time but my question is why was a function from an organization that serves primarily minors to begin with serving alcohol? My son has participated in HMHA for the last 6 years and we attend the end of season banquet each year. Even at that event alcohol is served. I don’t drink alcohol any longer, I stopped more than 10 years ago, but I am always a little miffed to see parents get snookered in front of their kids and the community.

HMHA obviously didn’t seem to think serving alcohol was a problem but maybe now that it has bit them in the ass they will change their policies. At least that’s my hope.

Minor retraction needed.

I went to the Erie County Clerks office today to get a copy of the lawsuit reportedly filed by Detective Zawierucha. I found out that their has been no such filing as of today. Upon further investigation it has been relayed to me by Hamburg Town Attorney Jim Sorrentino that the only thing submitted to the town was a “Notice of Intent to File a Claim.”

This is necessary in order to extend the time limit for a suit to be brought against a party and the party in this case is the Town of Hamburg and individuals who work for the town.

So because of this fact I am issuing a retraction to the article about lawsuits against the town and specifically the statement that Detective Zawierucha had filed the suit in State Supreme Court. Even I can get it wrong once in a while. Upon information and belief the suit should be filed soon and I will have a copy of the complaint up soon there after.

Apology to Jim Sorrentino and family!

Those of you who read this site probably say to yourselves that I slant way to the right in my political beliefs and you’re right. You probably say that I am offensive at times and you’re right again. But unfortunately if you think I am serious in everything I say here then you’re dead wrong.

The problem is I’m a novice writer with absolutely no experience in writing articles. I try my best to put a humorous flare on serious issues or my head would explode from the frustration of every day politics that hurt the public.

Because of something I said a while back that was meant to be humorous and was taken by Jim Sorrentino and his family as offensive, I now apologize. I wish I could have the writing flare of a Dave Barry or the late Charles Schultz, but I don’t and still need to learn that.

Steven Walters is on a roll!

It has come to the attention of Hamburg First that the Hamburg Town Board is considering dropping the position of Chief of Police and Assistant Chief of Police from the Command Officer Union contract. This is another major victory for Steven Walters.

Just the fact that Walters has gotten the Town Board to consider this is huge. The Democratic Party in Erie County and in every town has handed out excessive contracts to unions at all levels. This Command Officers Union has strapped the town with every imaginable union benefit costing the tax payers thousands of dollars each year.

Hamburg Democrats can’t hold back old secrets!

Hamburg First has been working on a couple articles of some old political protection stories that never seen the light of day. (I apologise if any of the names are misspelled.) One of those stories is about political protection for sexual harassment charges against the Town of Hamburg Police Department and several of it’s employees while the town was firmly in the control of the Democratic Party.

The first charge was brought by Officer Diane Schwiezer who is no longer on the Police Force and is supposedly living in the Washington DC metro area. Upon information and belief from impeccable sources it has been relayed to me that several years ago Diane had filed a sexual harassment case in NYS Supreme Court naming at least 6 defendants. Those Defendants included (D) Chief of Police Matt Czerwiec, (D) Assistant Chief of Police Joe Coggins, a few Police detectives Including Tom Best and a couple officers on the force.

Loring Street Playground Damage!

These are the pictures associated with yesterdays article on the Loring street playground damage. As you can see a fire was set inside the tumbles for the plastic playground equipment. I hope they catch the vandals soon.

Teenage Vandals Destroy Town Playground!

Sources are reporting that teenage vandals are responsible for the destruction of playground equipment at the Loring Street playground off Big Tree Rd. It has come to the attention of Hamburg First that at least 1 teenager has been arrested in a similair matter.

Apparently this past Saturday evening a group of teenagers assembled in the playground and began getting rowdy. They then proceeded in starting the playground equipment on fire and bust it apart. There is a large hole burned through the plastic jungle gym used by children between 5 and 10 years old. This equipment is very thick plastic and safe.

Frontier School District Foil request

I sent this Freedom of Information law request to the Frontier central School District 2 months ago. As of today I still haven’t received a single word from the District. Tomorrow I will be following up with the District and hopefully it will be just a simple mistake on their part. I will keep you informed.

Rerun of Hamburg’s Top Police Command Officers Cash Out!

 Because of the current circumstances surrounding Chief Coggins Resignation/retirement I think it is prudent rerun this story. The figures for 2006 should be completed by the end of the week. (Sorry for the lack of proper alignment. The program this site uses doesn’t align properly when spaces are used and there is no way to make tables with it.)

    For the last 3 months or so I have been investigating the Town of Hamburg’s Police Command Officers Union for what I was told was abuse of the town payroll system. I really didn’t know what to expect, most of the sources that fed me the information were angry themselves because they weren’t getting the overtime they felt they deserved. The initial allegations were that the top officers in Hamburg were really milking the overtime in their department and while on overtime they wouldn’t leave their office and work for the money.