The questions posed in your conversations are not easy ones to answer, for the issues are complex, layered, like the archeology of the site.

For a brief moment, our community has an additional opportunity to be educated by professionals who have worked on heritage and canal projects all over the country. The consultants gathered for this unique conference have rich and varied experience, as well as success stories, to share with us, guiding this chapter in our conversation.

We have an opportunity to learn from the presenters and an opportunity to learn together. The opportunity has been made possible through the efforts of the conference founder and organizer, local attorney, Kevin Gaughan, with the support of his awesome network of volunteers.

A graduate of Harvard, Georgetown Law School, and the London School of Economics, Kevin chose to pursue a life of service to our community, returning to Western New York after an impressive legal career on Wall Street. Making this community’s public life the focus of his work, we are fortunate to have his energy, intellect, creativity and passion dedicated to improving our region.

Examples of other important initiatives conceived and organized by Kevin were the 1997 “Chautauqua Conference on Regionalism in Government,” the 1998 “Regional Conversation,” an interfaith dialogue between urban, suburban and rural congregations, and the 1999 “Regional Conference on Education.” In each conference the approach has been to expand and extend our definition of public conversation, moving from a conflict orientation towards an increasingly inclusive and participatory model.

Kevin brings a rare and unique style to his work. Preeminent is his optimism. He is convinced that Buffalo and Western New York are someplace special. Working together in a positive and collaborative manner, he believes we can realize our potential. He persistently approaches issues from a positive perspective, identifying what can be done, rather than why something cannot be done. To borrow and paraphrase a quote from Time magazine, “A community must have access to optimism — not often an available grace in areas of poverty and stagnation.” Kevin provides it in abundance.

When he first proposed the idea of this conference, The Baird Foundation was quite reticent to follow his lead. We found many objections: not enough time, too contentious, too political, too confusing, too many questions. Eventually, our reluctance became the reason to support his proposal. Perhaps the general community shared our confusion about what original material remains at the site, why it is important, and what benefits would return to the community from this large public works project. Perhaps we all could learn how successful public-private alliances and partnerships have been built around similar projects.

(back to the top)