In a brief, terse exchange, snowmobile opponent Michael Whaling called for Jim MacFadden’s resignation from the Sharon Springs school board Monday and Mr. MacFadden declined.
“I shall not resign,” Mr. MacFadden said.
“When pigs fly, I shall resign.”
At issue is Mr. MacFadden’s support of allowing snowmobilers to access state trails and Sharon businesses through the SSCS grounds after-hours.
Mr. Whaling is a longtime opponent of that practice, in part because his home backs up against the school property and he’s forced to live with fumes and noise from late-night snowmobiling.
Mr. Whaling—and others—is also questioning the safety of allowing snowmobiles to cross school grounds and has called for them to be banned from all of the village.
The school’s first responsibility is for the safety of its students, Mr. Whaling said Monday.
“Snowmobiles bring nothing to the students, but they do risk their safety,” he said.
“Your lobbying [for snowmobiles] is clearly a conflict of interest,” he told Mr. MacFadden. “I wish you’d do the right thing and resign.”
Mr. MacFadden, however, answered that it’s Mr. Whaling who is in the minority on this issue and school board members are elected to represent the entire community.
“That you accuse us of not considering students’ safety is an insult,” he said.
A group of representatives from SSCS, the Sharon Pathfinders Snowmobile Club, and the Village of Sharon Springs met two weeks ago to try to resolve the ongoing issue of where snowmobiles should be resolved.
Mr. MacFadden was one of the school board’s two representatives; the other, Alan Potter, is out of town on business.