Wales Blue Star Memorial to be Dedicated on Veterans Day

At its Sept. 23 work session, the Wales Town Board authorized Highway Superintendent Michael Zywar to install a Blue Star Memorial marker along Route 20A adjacent to the Sgt. Mark Rademacher Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) Post #7795 in Wales Center. The town board previously approved the marker's installation.

The Blue Star Memorial program, begun shortly after the conclusion of World War II, is a tribute to the service members of the US military, according to the two women instrumental in bringing the memorial markers to Wales. Coordinated under the auspices of the National Federation of Garden Clubs across the United States, the Wales Town Board was approached by East Aurora Garden Club member Elaine DiPietro and Holland Garden Club member Christine Hausauer at a previous board workshop. The two asked permission to have a Blue Star Memorial marker installed along Big Tree Road in Wales Center in front of Edmund Bud Bogucki Town Park and the VFW Post. The town board granted permission for the marker's installation.

Memorial markers now exist on Route 16 heading into the Town of Holland, as well as in Elma, DiPietro previously told the Wales board. Blue Star Memorial markers are traditionally placed in front of national cemeteries, gardens, parks and veterans facilities, officials noted.

A ceremony commemorating the installation of the Blue Star Memorial marker will be observed Nov. 11, Veterans Day, in Wales Center along Route 20A, and Zywar has been directed to have the marker in place by that date at Bogucki's request. Bogucki has served in many leadership roles as a member of the VFW post in Wales, and as a town board member for 24 years.

In other news, the board received an update from Councilman Michael Simon and Town Attorney Ronald P. Bennett on the recent ruling handed down by the Appellate Division of the New York State Supreme Court in Albany The appellate justices upheld a previous State Supreme Court ruling permitting a local jurisdiction to ban gas well hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, as it is commonly referred to, within its own borders. The ruling was all encompassing, Bennett said, and has far-reaching ramifications for communities such as Wales, which has a similar law on its books.

In this case, the eastern Southern Tier community of Dryden passed a law almost two years ago that forbade any person or corporation from fracking within the town's borders for public health reasons. The legislation, passed by the Dryden Town Board and challenged in Albany by pro-fracking forces, pre-empted state law that maintained it was the sole responsibility of the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) to define and implement legislation regulating the industry, and declared it was the town's prerogative to allow home rule. State law should take precedence over local legislation, opponents argued before the justices.

The issue came down to an interpretation of state DEC law, Bennett said, with the high court siding with the Town of Dryden in upholding the lower court's decision banning hydraulic fracturing if a local community so chooses.

Dryden didn't have 'fracking' as a permitted use in its zoning ordinances, Bennett told board members, leaving the door open for its town board to act. He also noted that the Town of Wales code (fully) complies with state law, under the high court's ruling.

We'll' do anything that we have to do to protect this community, Simon said of his disdain for the practice of hydraulic fracturing. He also said the intent of the Wales law not allowing fracking was clear and concise.

Simon, with a major assist from councilwoman Jude Hartrich, authored the local legislation banning hydraulic fracturing in Wales two years ago.

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Wales Blue Star Memorial to be Dedicated on Veterans Day