Prattsburgh unfriendly and unwelcoming? Maybe we should ask the Archer, Lambertz, Wagner, Lasante, Poore, Kesselring, Muck, Beiber, Covert, Squiers, Williams, Connors, Novitskey, Booth, Bristol, Tietje, Calderwood, Randall, Taylor, Wood, Whightman, Brockman, Shick, Plate, Peer, Spooner, Lamphere and Everdyke families. I could list more, but I think you get the picture.
They volunteer in our Fire Department, Library, Food Pantry, Churches, Scouts, Junior League , Summer Soccer League, and our School. They belong to Rotary, Eastern Star, Masons, Senior Citizens and Historical Society.
Some live here part-time, full time, have retired here, and some commute long distances just to live here.
They are School Board Members, Town Board Members, and Community Members. They support our businesses, our organizations and are on various committees.
They attend our Church Dinners, Sunday Breakfasts, our Winter Festival, our Summer Festival, Sporting Events, School Concerts, and are willing to help out in any way.
Some have lived here for years, others for only months. Some live in town, others live in “the hills.”
All have varying reasons for living here but have three things in common.
• They were not raised here.
• They chose to move here.
• And they have become welcomed additions to Prattsburgh.
They melded into this community and did not try to change it and have become members of our great little community.
Many of “you people” have not tried nor even wanted to be community members.
You formed your group and called yourselves “Advocates for Prattsburgh” only to advocate for yourselves and started showing up at town meetings, monopolizing them to the point that the locals quit coming.
Many of us, had never seen you before then, and your abrasive, and some times, rude behavior was our first impressions of you.
Your half truths, slanderous remarks, threats, and your attempts to take over the town have given yourselves, the “you people” label.
I am sure Mrs. Sullivan, being a Christian, did not intend her letter to sound so negative and was trying to get people to come together, but I am afraid that many will find her letter offensive.
There is a lot of animosity on both sides, but as long, as people do not “yearn to understand first and to be understood second,” and both sides are not willing to be civil to each other, it will not change.
If “you people” had spent half your money and time working with our town officials, instead of fighting, and suing us, we all would be much better off.
There is a perception being put out there that outsiders are not welcome, which is untrue and insulting.
Prattsburgh has been and still is, a very friendly community. I pray that letters, and attitudes, such as Mrs. Sullivan’s, do not inhibit the healing between the two sides.
I do know, because of “ you people,” our community members, born and raised here, or moved here, are becoming more informed, more involved, and more united, and I feel blessed to be a part of this community.
Stacey Bottoni
Prattsburgh
