Mined, at last, from the notebooks, Friday, November 9, 2018. Typed up, Wednesday, February 6.
...that's why they named it after him
Fella in the photo above, speechifying at the lectern, is United States Congressman Paul Tonko. He represents New York’s 20th Congressional District. That’s the district where the Old Mannion Homestead’s located. He was at our town hall for the ceremony naming it for the deceased one-time town supervisor who got the place built back in the 1990s. Until today, it carried only a generic name: This Town’s Town Hall. Tonko was friends with that supervisor and considers him a political mentor. I happened to be at the ceremony too and after the speechifying he and I talked about last week's election over cake and coffee. I asked him if he was looking forward to having lots of new company around the office come January.
He beamed at the question.
Tonko’s a Democrat.
So was that town supervisor. It’s too bad he didn’t live to see the party take over the House. He died in August.
Tonko spoke warmly of his old friend. He knows what it meant to him to get the new town hall built, and how long and how hard he worked to get it done. He didn’t intend it as a monument to himself. The town needed a new hall. The old one was small, cramped, and in terrible disrepair. It wasn’t falling down but it needed to be rewired, replumbed, and repainted. The windows needed to be replaced along with the furnace. The brickwork needed repointing. A new town hall was a practical necessity.
But as long as they were going to build a new one, the supervisor wanted it to be a building the town could be proud of. His vision for it was inspired by Thomas Jefferson, his second favorite president. His idea was that if the place didn’t look like it was designed by Jefferson, it would at least look like it wouldn’t be out of place on the University of Virginia campus.
The supervisor had two go-rounds as what is more or less the equivalent of mayor. Ten years in the 1970s. Eight more in the late ‘80s and ‘90s. The old town hall was in terrible shape when he was first sworn in but for the whole decade following the board had a Republican majority that resisted spending the town’s money. One of the Republicans declared it made him sick to his stomach every time he voted to pay for anything. Gas for the snowplows. Hiring a new cop. Buying paperclips. But when the supervisor took office the second time, the board had a Democratic majority and the supervisor saw a way to finally get the new town hall built.
Not that it was easy. Voters would have to approve his budget proposal, and voters are resistant to spending their tax dollars on the comfort of politicians and bureaucrats. But the police department would be housed in the new building and voters were---grudgingly---amenable to giving them new home with more elbow room and up-to-date amenities. The real trouble came from one of the other Democrats on the board. She objected to the cost of building a beautiful town hall. She'd be happy to work in a quonset hut, she declared, if it would save the town the expense. I always suspected that what motivated her was not thrift but jealousy. She didn’t like the prospect of the supervisor getting all the credit and praise. She didn’t like it that he was back as supervisor. She thought it was her turn and she resented him for usurping her place. One of the first lessons of politics is how much getting something done depends on dealing with people’s vanity and egos.
On the other hand, one of the Republicans on the board was all for building the new town hall and liked the supervisor’s plans both for the building itself and for financing the construction. She became the supervisor’s staunchest ally and advisor on the project.
Tonko [the local paper reported] said [the supervisor] put his mind to work in order to build a better community and better world. "That's what we pay tribute to today, that integrity and determination," he said.
Tonko also said [the supervisor’s] inspiration to build Town Hall was to bring people together. "Not just as a government but as a base, as a stage, to enable people to share with one another," he said.
"This will forever cherish his memory and bring to mind that it was about his integrity and hard work and passion for what he knew"…
Another speaker at the ceremony was one of the Republican board members from the supervisor’s first stint in office---not the one who got sick to his stomach at spending money that needed to be spent. Hugh Farley, who went on to the New York state senate where he served for forty years, the longest stretch for a state senator in New York’s history---he retired in 2016---was a much more reasonable and practical-minded member of the board. Not incidentally, then, he and the supervisor were friends, and not just around the town hall. Their friendship continued for decades in the corridors and cafeterias at their day jobs. They both taught at the University at Albany, the supervisor in the computer science department, Farley in the business school, but they were united by their mutual love of teaching, of history, of the town, and for politics as the art of problem solving.
There were other speakers. A current board member, a Democrat, who acted as MC. The current supervisor, a Republican. The Republican who was elected to succeed him as supervisor when he stepped down in 1980. Mike McNulty, the Democrat who was the district’s Congressman before Tonko. The supervisor's widow Jean.
All in all, it was a happy occasion and a proud one for Jean, his sister Dorothy, who lost her own husband back in May---Bill and the supervisor were good and close friends all their adult lives---his sons and daughters, and his grandchildren. The nine of the fourteen grandchildren who could make it to town for the dedication joined together on the outside balcony to handle the unveiling of their grandfather’s name on the portico.
I should mention...
I spoke too.
I had a few things I wanted to say about my dad.
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Updated with joy and grief and pride, Wednesday, February 6, 2019: Pop Mannion died on August 1, last summer. He was buried on August 6, six months ago today. In his honor I’m making this Pop Mannion Month on the blog. I’m not planning on it being all Pop, all the time, but there are going to be more than a few posts over the course of the next several weeks. I hope you don’t mind.
I’ve still got a few things I want to say about my dad.
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