Roughly 150 Williamsville residents showed up at Williamsville South High School on Tuesday night to hear municipal downsizing crusader Kevin Gaughan's pitch for village dissolution. And dozens reacted with deep and unvarnished skepticism.

That was obvious before even walking through the auditorium doors.

Activists with the Friends of the Village of Williamsville stood outside and handed out flyers to meeting attendees that read, "Trust your neighbors, not some outsider with an agenda!!!! ... Because Kevin Gaughan doesn't care about us!!!"

Gaughan spent part of the meeting rolling out his vision for village dissolution that he said was based on his own experience and research of other village dissolution models.

Under Gaughan's plan, the Village of Williamsville would still be called the Village of Williamsville, but "unincorporated." Many of the services, policies and committees that serve village residents would continue.

"One of the purposes of my plan is to dispel the notion that Williamsville quality of life or unique sense of place would be affected if government is eliminated," Gaughan said.

He recommended the village adopt a more direct, New England-style form of governance in which more residents play an active role in the community. The village board of trustees would transition into an informally elected and unpaid Village Board of Advocates, which would represent village interests before Amherst town government and the Town Board.

The village's 14 volunteer citizen committees would continue, providing guidance to the Town Board and providing for the continuation of the Village Garden Walk, Old Home Days, the beautification of Main Street and other matters.

Under Gaughan's model, the village's Community Plan would be adopted by the town; water, sewer and garbage services would be consolidated; village historic designations would become town historic designations; and a special taxing district would be created to provide for the continuance of sidewalk snowplowing.

The village's part-time positions, including mayor and trustees, would be eliminated under Gaughan's plan and the full-time employees would be offered town positions or buyouts.

He recommends the town adopt all village codes and laws for two years after dissolution until they can be properly included with town laws. The town also would be expected to adopt special legislation to create a unique zoning district encompassing the village.

Village assets would be transferred to the town but overseen by the Village Board of Advocates, and village debt would be capped and possibly reduced with help from state grant money made available for dissolving governments, Gaughan said.

Gaughan prefaced his plan by stating that the Village of Williamsville is a dying community, shrinking in overall population and the population of young people in particular.

He pointed to figures showing that over the past decade, while the village population has fallen by 25 percent, the government budget has grown by 16 percent and the tax levy has gone up by 49 percent.

"Year after year, the Williamsville village government takes more and more money from fewer and fewer residents," he concluded.

Gaughan made numerous comparisons to the Village of Seneca Falls, which voted to dissolve its government in May, airing video clips of residents and officials who assured Gaughan on camera that village services would continue while financial costs would decline.

While a number of meeting attendees applauded Gaughan's position, many more expressed vocal and deep-seated opposition. Numerous speakers rebuffed Gaughan's suggestion that the village would be able to keep their services and events and still save money. They also questioned whether Gaughan's plan is something that he could guarantee would be implemented when it is village and town officials who would craft the dissolution plan.

"Your thoughts and ideas could go out the window," said one resident. Some refuted the idea that the village is dying when village homes remain in high demand. Some also said dissolving the village doesn't guarantee that young people will come back or lead to any economic resurgence.

Villagers questioned whether they really would save money and were concerned about the possibility of losing the closest layer of government to the people. A number also dismissed Gaughan's prediction that the town would be committed to maintaining existing town parks and village fire companies.

James Saia, a village resident since the early 1950s, recalled during the meeting how he helped build a village fire hall years ago with bingo money. He expressed, like many others, a cynical view of town government and the interest of town officials in addressing village affairs or needs.

"I don't trust the town," Saia said, "and I don't trust you."

stan@buffnews.comnull