Supervisor Fran Pordum reminded everyone that club member Anthony "Neno" LaRusso has organized a Memorial Day Ceremony for Sunday, May 24 at 2 p.m. at the Town Hall.  LaRusso is chair of the Town's Veterans' Committee, which works to assist veterans obtain their rightful benefits.  Steven Banko, WNY's most decorated Viet Nam Veteran, will give the keynote address at this public event to which everyone is invited.  There is also a parade in the Village of Angola on Monday, May 25, starting at 10 a.m.

The proposed referendum to reduce the number of town board members from 5 to 3 was a topic of discussion.  Town councilmember Karen Erickson noted the criticisms she is hearing about the referendum, that it would make the Town like Albany: "3 men in a room."  She noted that it would be worse -- that actually, all decisions about Town governance would be made by "2 men in a room" since 2 board members would constitute a majority.  "From what I'm hearing, people don't want two people to control town finances, to control town programs, and to make all town decisions," commented Erickson. 

Councilmember Paul Cooper reported an upcoming electronics recycling event on Saturday, June 6, 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., at the GM Powertrain Plant 5 in Tonawanda.  Accepted items include computers, TVs, fluorescent bulbs, monitors, keyboards and mice, printers/scanners, cell phones, rechargeable batteries, and VCR/DVD players.

Town Clerk Carole Meissner noted that the voting on the June 3rd referendum will be held from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m.  Proponents of the referendum are telling people they can vote until 8 p.m.  This is not accurate -- the polls are open until 9 p.m.

Town chair Robert "Bob" Catalino discussed a campaign of misinformation supporting the referendum.  People are being told that a "yes" vote will mean cuts in property taxes and assessments.  This is not accurate.  The town has a budget of over fifteen million (15M+) dollars.  A board member makes $15,300; benefits, if they take them, are about $5,000.  That means a board member's compensation is less than 1% of the Town's budget -- in fact, it's 0.13%.  Given that the work of the 2 councilmembers won't go away, he questioned if the referendum goal is to make the remaining board members full-time and noted that would mean zero savings.

Club president Michelle Parker discussed the efforts by the Evans-Brant Chamber of Commerce to schedule 2 people to debate the referendum on Thursday, May 28 at 7 p.m.  The Chamber will host a voter information night that evening at the New Angola Theatre in the Village of Angola.  On May 8, the Chamber invited 2 area attorneys to address this:  Kevin Gaughan, a proponent of the referendum, and Craig Bucki, author of Regionalism Revisited - The Effort to Streamline Governance in Buffalo and Erie County, New York, to discuss the disadvantages of reducing the number of town board members.  Efforts are still underway to confirm.   

The Club adjourned in recognition of the Lakeshore Cheerleaders, who have been invited to participate in the 2009 Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.  They need everyone's support.  Donations can be made to Friends of the Lake Shore Cheerleaders by June 1; call Lynn Fulton for questions at 947-5914.

The next meeting will be held on Tuesday, June 16, 2009, at 7:30 p.m., at the VFW on Route 5.