The World According to Bob

Editor’s note: Most weeks, the Niagara Express transcribes Mayor Restaino’s Letter to the Ephesians verbatim. Below is this week’s missive, verbatim:

It's Friday here at City Hall. Just a few things to go over with you. Yesterday I signed the contracts for additional paving and mowing. I'm happy to be able to get that accomplished notwithstanding council member Cauley and council member Myles efforts to avoid getting additional paving done, you know to be quite honest I don't know why other than politics perhaps or spitefulness perhaps.

Vincent Cauley, Bridgette Myles and nonsense

There is no explanation for, in my mind, for what they've done. You'll hear a storytelling about needing to see other bids. It's all on the agenda item. You listen to what they say and you have to ask yourself. This is amazing for public officials to behave and to act this way. These are basic services, and I'm happy to report that we've got additional grass cutting going on, as well as, I say, this additional paving.

While those two council members, you know, parade around doing whatever they do, I'm glad that we have some council members, who are as equally concerned as this administration is, to deliver services to people. That's what we'll continue to do, again, while they scream and holler, those two scream and holler for whatever they want to scream and holler for.

Maybe they will come to their senses

I just pray that, at some point, they'll come to their senses and realize that we all work for the entire city, and not just for a select group that we want to keep entertained. So

We're going to move forward with all of those projects and services and just know that regardless of the noise that you hear from them, we'll continue to do our best to provide basic services for residents.

Trust the professionals

Based upon the information, I trust the people in this building that work in each department. I think they do a very, very good job of analyzing the work product in front of them and presenting it in a way that is both responsible and beneficial for residents.

It's unfortunate that those two council members don't trust them. And, you know, these folks come to work every day and work hard. They don't even get support from their union leader (Editor’s note: Tim Huether).

He has taken it upon himself to delay and frustrate the completion of necessary negotiations. So it's just unfortunate. But, again, we stand behind the people who work here. We think that they are very good at what they do, and we're proud of the work that they bring forth. So maybe someday, these two council members will join in that understanding. That all being said, you know, we're coming close to the end of summer and the beginning of school. So that means that, again, I'm going to bring to everybody's attention the need to be careful on our streets.

Be careful and share the road

I know I say this in every weekend discussion with you, and I think it bears repeating every weekend. We share the roads. You're now going to start to see students on street corners or school buses. Please remember, when those school bus lights come on,

Everybody has to stop. If it's a four-lane road, all four lanes need to stop. This isn't, let's try to race past it before the lights come on. All of those things lead to accident, potential injury or worse.

And so let's just be smart about how we go about on the road. I think the last check that our departments had on the coming weather for the weekend, Saturday is supposed to be a very good day. Sunday, there could be some rain. So I know that everyone's going to be out and around.

These are the last weekends of summer. And so if you're going to be out and about and you're going to be enjoying these last few days, please be safe, be careful, and remember that, again, the roadways are shared. They're shared by all sorts of vehicles, and we need to each, in whatever vehicle we're operating, we need to each be mindful of safety.

And, you know, as you go through the weekend, just remember that this administration and some of the partners that we have on the council will continue to deliver the services, the basic services to the best of our ability for you.

And it really shouldn't be a concern that these two council members are going to interfere with the delivery of basic services or with public safety. It just seems to me that they're on a mission to discredit the police department,

And then, you know, sort of try to follow that up with videos or statements. No, you know, we really do appreciate actions speak louder than words and their no votes are obstruction. You can't argue for and against the same thing. So it's unfortunate that they are conducting themselves in the way they're conducting themselves. But again, we hope that at some point they will come to the realization that the only people that they are impacting are all of you.

Cauley and Myles are hurting all of us

While they may think that they're impacting me, they're really impacting all of you. So I hope that they will come to their senses and that they will realize that they need to work for all of the city. I know I'm hoping that they'll come to that conclusion soon.

And you can be confident in the knowledge that myself and those council members who join me will do all of our best to make sure that you get those services that you are entitled to. So, again, please be careful this weekend. Enjoy these last days of summer. And I look forward to talking to you again next week.