To the editor:

There is plenty to be said about the Dec. 13 Enterprise article “Letting it all out” on the Monday night Village Board of Trustees meeting gone amok. But first, let’s discuss the earlier Nov. 24 board meeting when they finally broke the near-total silence and openly discussed spending about $30 million for a public safety building. Please don’t interpret my comments as a lack of support for a well-thought-out project. I get it; we need to do right by our emergency services workers.

But the big issue for most people is why we need 41,000 square feet more than the current 17,746? It appears that those in power are determined to use the existing spacious Petrova building and add 20,000 square feet of heated space for heavy vehicles, which cannot be parked in the existing building. The parking space seems defensible, but the additional 41,000 seems excessive.

Mayor Williams also stated that the utility costs for a modern 59,000 square-foot facility with LED lights, etc., should be about the same as for our existing buildings. Even if this is accurate, the more important question is how much taxpayer money could be saved for heating, cleaning, etc., if the new, efficient building were right-sized (i.e., smaller)?

The mayor also said that for 40 years, others have “kicked the can” down the road. He misses the point: We agree that the can has been kicked down the road, we just want a smaller, more affordable can.

Fast forward to Dec. 8 for Saranac Lake’s own version of a village board meeting resembling an episode of South Park. Although the Enterprise’s reporting of the four-hour meeting was very good, it did not adequately capture the abusive behavior of Mayor Williams and his mistreatment of both the public and his fellow board members.

The mayor came to the meeting fully prepared with extensive notes to unleash a barrage of accusations and insults at a number of people, including some not even at the meeting. He blind-sided everyone by showing the edgy but rather funny AI-generated video that criticized his leadership, and he tried, without evidence, to claim that it was an attack on our much-admired public safety volunteers. It was beneath the dignity of his office to turn a satire about him and his pet project into an attack on local citizens.

The mayor spent much of the public comment period interrupting those he disagreed with (in violation of the board’s own rules), while allowing others uninterrupted time. I personally was interrupted three times within a minute, despite asking the mayor each time not to interrupt me.

To his credit, a few days later, Mayor Williams did meet with me for coffee and proved that he could be frank, professional and open without being aggressive and insulting. If only he could consistently do the same during village board meetings.

Keith John Murphy

Saranac Lake