A Flight of Fancy from "UCA"

Appointed Oneida County Executive Picente wants to sell the Old Oneida County Airport (UCA) land to the State. People in Whitestown are not happy.

"Bill Barry, who was chairman of the reuse committee for the former airport, said he hoped to see the roughly 1,800-acre parcel used for businesses . . . "That's the largest single-owner piece of property in the state of New York, and there's documents around that say there are individual companies that are interested in a large piece of property in the Northeast.""

Yes, Mr. Barry, there are companies looking for those few-and-far-between large parcels --- companies like AMD.

And we did not read of any substantial monetary commitment to the Homeland Security Training Center when it was announced, so where is the money to purchase the old airport going to come from? Senate discretionary money perhaps?

Is Mr. Fiorini trying to kill off Rome's competition? Is Mr. Bruno trying to kill off Luther Forest's competition? Is this all just a "flight of fancy" (the only kind of flight leaving UCA these days)?

Who knows? But with announcements like todays coming seemingly out of left field, and people like Mr. Fiorini who appear to speak on behalf of an entire county legislature but also cut off discussion, the public has been given a license to speculate.