Hi All! Thank you for your continued support and energy surrounding our historic local community skate space. I wanted to send updates that I’ve discovered so far in preparation for the February 11th hearing board. The special permits that the Marchuska Brothers/Williams Auto have applied for are in a protected Aquifer region and this aquifer is listed as primary. What that means is that this proposed car facility with its oil and gas waste would be DIRECTLY over the PRIMARY drinking water source for the Town of Vestal and has potential to seep into it. Let me say that again, there is a serious risk that this new car facility space can affect your drinking water! As a result, Marchuska/Williams must get signatures from every property owner within 500 feet which according to county online maps contains 19 properties/parcels. I have requested the aquifer overlay map from the Town of Vestal— something we the people for whatever reason do not have direct access too. I got a response back saying that the town has 20 business days to get the overlay map to me which falls 5 business days past the hearing board. I also asked if Marchuska/Williams is allowed to bribe, gift, pay, incentivize for those signatures and I have received no response and that email was sent 8 days ago. When I replied and pointed out the request response problem I received only this in return “Your request has been forwarded to the appropriate departments.” I am at a loss from where we as a community can go from here other than to educate one another and stand up for the people living within our community an the needs that we have for our families. We now have a petition with almost 1000 signatures against the new plan and I am hoping that people whom want to preserve community spaces see this. I do not think that simply publishing a newspaper article stating that permits have been filed without telling our community that it can outright impact your drinking water counts as sufficient or informative notice. We must demand full transparency on every level of government. If anyone has suggestions or insight that may be helpful please feel free to email me at JessicaLGahring@gmail.com. Many Community Blessings, Ya’ll 🙏 Jessica