I was thinking about puting up a history of christmas about how it was pagen holiday and all that kind of stuff, but what would be the point. I just wanted to wish Everyone a Merry Christmas (or what ever other holiday they celebrate and for the Witnesses of Jahovia have a nice long weekend). With My Birthday and Christmas Eve and Football and Christmas I may not make it to the site. Even though I have no Idea what I'm doing and most likely have time to do go on the site, but you never know. Does anyone know if they still Have the festival Of lights in Niagara Falls? I don't think it is going to happen but I did want to visit Niagara Falls during the winter. The main Reason was to take pictures of Niagara falls during winter. I don't think I ever posted my pictures of Niagara Falls. If you are interested in seeing them you can go to webshots.com and look up Peterdunn under search for user I think I have them listed under my links also. In any event I hope everyone enjoys there holidays.

First of all I hope I din't put up any pictures twice If I did then I'm sorry. Secondly I Have to thank (e:paul). He figured out a way for me to add my pictures to my Journal. Hopefully next time I take pictures I woun't have a problem but if I do, now I know how to fix it or work around it. I hope you all enjoy the pics.

Season Tickets to any mayor sport are so expensive. I can only afforid Bandits tickets those games are so fun. I wish I could afforid Bills, Bisons, and Sabres that would be awesome plus that would mean I could afforid to own a house or rent a loft. If I had a loft and it was clean I would invite you all over. Well I got go and missing the sabres. On another Note (e:ladycroft) hope you feal better, (e:Beast) it was nice to meet you, sorry It only took me two hours to relise it was you and sorry I didn't have much to say your posts have allways been one of my favorites back in the old days, also sorry to (e:carey) for not being talkative I did enjoy myself.

First of all the above link is because (e:strip) and my pictures and Internet explorer or maybe it is my camara are not compatable for some reason, so I posted the pics I took from the party at the above website. I get some weird divison by zero message and a little box with a red x in it. What is realy odd is that pictures that I only downloaded once, I have copies of in the same folder. I have a bunch of photo albums up the one you will want to look at is titled elmwoodstrip.org . There may be some other pictures there you might like as well. hopefully I will put up my sabres pictures and more toronto pics by the end of Jan but I may not have time I had fun I have to say that (e:ladycroft) (e:beast) and (e:theecarey) all fuckin fule. Everyone was preaty cool there. I saw some familar faces but didn't get pictures of everyone, sometimes it is hard to match the face to the name. That chocolate liquar didn't agree with me but yum did they taste good.

I will be there tonight and taking pictures. (Hopefully when I download them I save them correctly and they work on (e:strip), two sets of pictures I can view but not upload not sure how I messed up the downloading). In any event this morning at the bank I overheard that there was goiing to be a Christmas parade. I wound up seeing it and it wound up being short. By the time I saw Byron Brown and Tony Maisello and relised it was them and took a picture they where passed me so I got there backs. Go Sabres!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Soon the Sabres are on. Then they play again on sat around 5pm. I have a check to cash pictures to get developed, Mike's Hard Lemonade to buy. Then I have stuff I've taped to watch online stuff to do. Plus there is Saturday football and then at 8 or 8:30 there is [s]The bills game Vs. Denver to watch[/s]. Actully I'm planning to go to the (E:strip) Snow party. As long as my Batteries work ok take pictures of course.

Well My plan was to post pictures from the sabres game but the only one that is working on Here is the Bill clinton one. On the media page I get boxes that are X'd so I will try again at some other time. I had fun at the game even though I was late I miss planed and got there as the BPO Brass was finishing god bless america from what I read they played both anthems before that but there where maybe a couple hundered people in line for tickets so I missed some of the game. All in all I had a great time and it was a lot of fun the place was pakced anunrd 16k and the atomosphere was amazing.

I may windup going to see the Sabres on Wendsday. They are having some band there. Not sure where they will perform. Also it has been in the News the Bill Clinton will be in town for something tommarow. From what I read He will also be at the Sabres Game with Golisano. From what I understand Tom is a big supporter of some of Clintons charity work. If I go to the game I will take my camara and take some pictures and hopefully if they come out nice I will post some of them. That assumes I wind up going it is a radio only game no TV but the news will show all the higlights.

The picture above is from Niagara falls, it is in the Buffalo News. The lady pictured is from the article below. I'm not sure why the indains where promised 56 acres of land that sounds like way to much for me. But now that they don't have all of it, it looks like the state may start taking peoples homes through Eminent Domain. to me it seems weird that they would do that to give the land over to the sencas but it sounds like that is what is going to happen. I think the falls made a bad deal. It is one thing when people sell hotels but when you start kicking people out of there homes then that is something else. That being said we did the same thing to the indains in the past. We stole there land put them on a piece of land then if coal, diamonds, gold or oil where on there the government would come in and kick them off the land. So maybe this is Karma sord of but it still sounds evil. But on the other hand if they can get the water park to be profitable and stay open maybe it is worth it The entire article is below or you can read it at their site also.



FOCUS: EMINENT DOMAIN
In Falls, the house trumps homes

---

State is taking private property so Senecas can expand casino and hotel

By GAIL NORHEIM and DAN HERBECK
News Staff Reporters
12/12/2005



Harry Scull Jr./Buffalo News
Patricia Van Egmond, 71, stands outside her Fifth Street home in Niagara Falls. She is in danger of losing her house to the Seneca Nation of Indians through eminent domain.

NIAGARA FALLS - Patricia Van Egmond's Fifth Street home has been in her family since 1937. It breaks her heart to imagine a bulldozer knocking it down to make room so a casino can expand.
Van Egmond, 71, opposes a controversial plan by New York State to force property owners to sell 26 acres of Niagara Falls land for use by the Seneca Nation of Indians.

The land - including homes, a hotel, restaurants and a multimillion-dollar water park - would be purchased by the state and turned over to the Senecas.

The Senecas plan to tear it all down and build at least one new hotel, parking facilities and other amenities for their Seneca Niagara Casino. One hotel owner, facing the state's threat, sold his hotel to the Senecas last week.

The state casino agreement with the Seneca Nation has different provisions for Buffalo, so most people dismiss the idea of a similar situation occurring as the Senecas build a casino in the Cobblestone District.

But in Niagara Falls, the state said it intends to use eminent-domain powers to obtain property for the Senecas. Eminent domain refers to the constitutional power of government to force people to sell their property for use in projects that benefit the public.

According to several experts, the Niagara Falls case is extremely rare - possibly the first time in the United States that a government has used eminent domain to obtain land for a Native American casino.

"The original intent of eminent domain was to help government get land for bridges, roads and other projects that benefit the public," said Adrian T. Moore, vice president of the Reason Public Policy Institute in Los Angeles.

"Now, government is taking private lands to give them to a sovereign nation to expand a casino," he said. "Casinos are notorious money machines. It's hard for me to believe they can't buy the land without the government's help."

The affected property owners have until Dec. 20 to file appeals if they want to fight eminent domain and try to keep their property.

Von Egmond does not want to lose her well-maintained two-family home. For her, the place brims with memories. She and her late husband, Gerald, raised three daughters and a son there. In recent years, family members have gathered at the home every Sunday for dinner.

She questions whether a casino provides any benefit to the public. She has spoken to an attorney and expects to file an appeal.

But Von Egmond seems resigned to the likelihood that the home will wind up as part of the casino project. She has heard that legal fees for fighting the government could be $10,000 or more.

"I'm not happy with it," she said, "but I don't think we have a choice."





The state compact

When New York State signed a compact with the Seneca Nation of Indians in 2001, the state gave the Senecas the right to develop a 52-acre "footprint" around the Falls casino.

The Senecas purchased 26 acres but have not been able to acquire the other 26 acres. That's where the state now comes in, threatening to use its power of eminent domain to acquire the remaining land.

The biggest landowners among those affected by the eminent-domain proceedings are Niagara Falls developers John P. Bartolomei and Roger Trevino.

Their company, Fallsite LLC, owns 17 of the 26 acres, including the Fallsville Splash Park on John B. Daly Boulevard. Fallsite is controlled by Niagara Falls Redevelopment, a company backed by Howard Milstein, a Manhattan real estate billionaire.

Fallsite has hired a top eminent-domain lawyer to represent it, and, according to Bartolomei, it is willing to fight the issue all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court.

"This is downright illegal," Bartolomei said. "No one has had the audacity to suggest giving a piece of private property to a sovereign nation."

In June, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that governments can use eminent domain to obtain properties for private developments that benefit the local economy. The ruling upset organizations like the Reason Institute, whose members feel governments have gone too far in their use of eminent domain.

Niagara Falls city officials say the current assessed value of the 17 Fallsite-owned acres is $8.5 million, but the two developers say the land is worth much more, largely because of ambitious plans they have for a huge entertainment project.

How much is the property really worth?

"Hundreds of millions," Trevino said.

But the water park was closed from 1996 until this summer, when Trevino and Bartolomei decided to reopen it. The developers also announced their intention to build an $800 million entertainment development on the property. City officials say the water park's assessed value is expected to rise because of the reopening.

Did the developers reopen the water park in hopes of jacking up the amount of money they could get from the Senecas?

"Of course not," Bartolomei said.

And yet the other company Bartolomei and Trevino are involved with, Niagara Falls Redevelopment, may someday benefit from eminent domain. NFR is authorized to ask the city to use eminent domain to help it obtain property in a 142-acre area near the casino.

"We have no intention. We don't want to do it," Bartolomei said. "Some people are holding out, but we're trying to sit down with them."





The other properties


Among the other properties the state targeted for the Senecas are a Pizza Hut restaurant, a Ramada Inn, a Holiday Inn and nine homes, including Van Egmond's.

Gennaro Villella, the founder and owner of a Ramada Inn on Fourth Street, sold his hotel to a Seneca Nation subsidiary Friday, according to Villella's attorney, Mark R. McNamara. The hotel's assessed value is $2.3 million, but the sale price was not announced.

The Van Egmond home's assessed value is $70,800. The family said the Senecas have offered them 10 percent above the assessed value. The family feels that offer is unreasonable, because Van Egmond receives reliable income from a tenant who rents out half of the home.

The Senecas' casino compact with the state required the Senecas to first try buying those properties on the open market. If the Senecas couldn't get them at reasonable prices, the state promised it would step in and use eminent domain.

The Senecas offered fair market value for all the properties and made a "full effort" to buy them without using eminent domain, said Philip J. Pantano, spokesman for the Seneca Niagara Casino.

The Senecas and a state agency defend the use of eminent domain for this purpose. In a statement issued last month, the state Empire Development Corp. said there were moral reasons behind the decision.

"The governments of the United States and the State of New York have determined that each has a moral responsibility to secure a fair and equitable settlement for past inequities" related to the improper taking of land from the Senecas in the 19th century, the agency said.





Benefits seen

Although the land taken over by the Senecas will no longer be taxable, the Senecas said the casino development in Niagara Falls will bring benefits to the community, including new jobs and increased gambling profit sharing.

"We're already one of the fastest-growing private-sector employers in the region," Pantano said, noting that Seneca gambling operations now employ about 4,000 people in Western New York.

The compact requires the Senecas to pay for any land that is acquired under eminent domain in Niagara Falls. According to Pantano, the Senecas will pay for any outside legal fees resulting from appeals of the proceedings.

Because of the wording of the compact, eminent domain is unlikely to be used in Buffalo, according to both Mayor Anthony M. Masiello and Mayor-elect Byron Brown.

The compact makes no promises to the Senecas that they are entitled to specific properties or that any government entity will use eminent domain, they said.

"Our situation is not Niagara Falls'," Masiello said. "In the compact, a specific section of land was set aside [in Niagara Falls] for a casino. It calls for the state to use eminent domain to get the land, if needed. In Buffalo, there's been no specific land set aside. The Senecas have been efficiently going out and buying their own land. There's been no mention of using eminent domain."

The Senecas' president, Barry E. Snyder Sr., has said the Senecas have no present intent to seek eminent-domain action in Buffalo.

What would Brown do if the Senecas someday asked the city to use eminent-domain powers to obtain property for the Buffalo casino?

"I don't really anticipate the need for that," Brown said. "I would prefer to avoid it unless it was absolutely necessary and only if it could be demonstrated that it was for the public good."


e-mail: dherbeck@buffnews.com and gnorheim@buffnews.com

The winter olympics are coming up in feb. The hockey should be verry good. I don't know the time differance for italy. But it may mean that the primetime coverage isn't live. If that is the Case tehn watch it on the Candian Chanel. Yes they do center stories on the Candian Athletes but that way you can watch it live. I remember at one of the other games there was an olympic concert series. On american TV they would show one song. But On CTV or is that CFTO I forget they would show the entire concert live. There really where some good ones. I havn't looked it up on line yet but for those of us in Buffalo or other places that get both coverages check out the Candian and compare it. If you want to know only about the Americans then NBC will be just fine. But I think if you want to see all of one sport CTV may be better. I'm not saying to write off NBC but watch both. I know CTV covered Live 8 much better then MTV.