Do you guys have any idea how important the November elections of 2015 are going to be to the city of Lockport? We have absentee landlords renting out houses to criminals and using our city as their dumping grounds. We have people coming into Lockport to sell drugs, buy drugs and rob our businesses and banks. We have outsiders coming into Lockport and completely destroying everything that Lockport used to be. But we can still do something about it.

I don’t want to get overly dramatic and say that November 2015 is our last chance to save our city, but it can be the first step towards creating a city we can be proud of. We vote for our new mayor in November 2015 and we HAVE to make the right choice or we could suffer some very painful and long-term consequences. If you care about Lockport and you want Lockport to be around for your children and grandchildren, then you have to care about the November 2015 elections.

I am begging each and every one of you to do your research and follow Lockport political news very closely. I am also asking all Lockport media outlets to start giving us the information we need to make the right choice. You can go ahead and tell us what these politicians plan on doing, but we should be just as interested in what they have actually done as well.

We need to clean house. I mean no disrespect to Mayor McCaffrey, but we need to hit the restart button if we want to get things right. Everyone who served under Mike Tucker needs to be ousted and replaced with competent people. If your buddy is running for mayor and your buddy is an idiot, then don’t vote for him.

This is extremely important:

The loyalty of the people of Lockport MUST be to the city of Lockport in the November 2015 elections. We must vote for the very best people or we will suffer dire consequences.

Take the time to follow what the politicians do and say in media outlets like East Niagara Post. If you notice that a politician does one thing and then says something else, then that should be a red flag. We all know that politicians lie; it is part of the political machine. That is why the past actions of politicians should be just as important, if not more important, than what they promise they will do.

We never really see any advertising for the Lockport mayoral race, but this race would be a good time for politicians to start putting their message out to the people. Politicians that want to run for mayor of Lockport should be asking to be interviewed by East Niagara Post, and often. Those politicians should also be looking for time on WLVL and even some face time on LCTV. Reach out to the people and identify yourself as a mayoral candidate and tell us what you intend to do. This campaign, more than any previous ones, needs a high profile that Lockport people will pay attention to.

I can tell you this; any Lockport mayoral candidate who sends a political mailer to my house that is nothing but mud-slinging against their opponents will not get my vote. I want to hear and see you identify the issues and then outline your plan for solving the problems. I could really care less how many times your opponent went to a Canadian strip club when they were in college. I want to know how you will make sure that my hometown will be here when my grandkids need it. That is what I care about.

Start educating yourself people of Lockport and get yourselves ready for an incredibly important mayoral race in 2015. This would also be an ideal time to get those drug houses and absentee landlord slums shut down as well. If you see persistent illegal activity at a slumlord house, then call your alderman or, hell, call the mayor.

It is an election year. Maybe they will finally start doing something to clean up the elements that are destroying our city from the inside out.

Nick Oliver is a Niagara County resident and will be watching the 2015 Lockport mayoral candidates very carefully. His column appears every Wednesday and it is a call to arms for Lockportians to finally wake up and take control of their city before it disintegrates into a slumtown.

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