Ad’k Current by Colin Criss

Citizens want their representatives to sit down, agree to face issues 

With small town boards, relatively few resolutions, and tiny budgets, small town politics may seem unimportant in the field of government on a world scale.

Yet these politics, despite being at the bottom of the food chain in the government realm, are worthy of study and attention.

Government on this tiny a scale is often swayed by few factors with large influence compared to the state and federal levels of governance.

For example, the U.S. Government is run by many interests: the economy, foreign policy, social policy, etc., and the hundreds of subdivisions that each of these subjects break down into.

Old Forge, on the other hand, is driven by just one of these interests in particular: a localized economy. Social policy is mostly out of our hands, and we don’t worry about foreign policy unless you count snowmobilers from New Jersey as foreigners.

Does our economy break down into hundreds of subdivisions? Not really. 

Actually, our town population’s income is determined by tourism, our government’s income is based on taxes, our population’s expenses are relatively high costs of living, and our government’s expenses consists of labor costs.

But none of these four broad generalizations would be close to true without our tourism income. So tourism, not surprisingly, holds the most influence in our town politics, discussions, meetings, and overall well being.

And what controls tourism this time of year? You got it. Snowfall!

Many are chalking up our recent snow struggles to climate change, others call it plain bad luck. No matter what it is, it serves as an example of how one change in our world, maybe 100 less inches of snow in a winter, has the potential to turn our town upside down.

A couple bad winters in a row and tourists leave, businesses leave, families leave, schools shrink, and our town identity begins to fade.

The same goes for a lack of rain in farming communities in the west. Shipping labor overseas from factory towns has the same effect. A single change, and the small systems begin to overturn.

The moral of this story?

We must recognize what is truly important, and address it.

I recently had a conversation with our former Congressman, Sherwood Boehlert. “What the American people want,” he said, “is for their elected representatives to be elected, go and sit down with their colleagues, and agree on the issues that Americans face. Because there is no progress without agreement.”

Congressman Boehlert’s comments transcend partisanship. They also reflect simple recognition. Not only is there no progress without agreement, but there is a tendency to regress without agreement.  If we don’t recognize what the issues are and what we can do to solve them, they will bite us.

Obviously we can’t change the snow pattern (although I have heard a town-wide snow dance does help delay the spring thaw), but we can begin to adapt to the issue, once we all recognize that it really is a problem with major influence.

Creativity in our business practices and our government actions can help us adapt. It is creativity, after all, that fuels financial success.

The only way to be prepared for the future is to be prepared to change.

And our weather struggles of the last few years demand two objectives of us: that we recognize the problem and respond to our environment.

You can follow Colin Criss on Twitter @ADKCurrent

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