Stewart III Parrots Forster Line On 72nd Street Water Main Freeze

Don't let the smiling friendly face fool you. Candace Corsaro keeps an eagle eye on the events of the community and she called out City Democratic Chairman Gordon Stewart on the party's disingenuous attempt to cover up the fact that Mayor Paul Dyster mishandled the problem of frozen water lines on 72nd St.

 

“I think you might fold under questioning.”

That line, delivered by Joe Pesci in the classic gangster film “Goodfellas,” could have easily applied to the performance of Gordon Stewart III, a stalwart city fireman with plenty of free time on his hands.

Because city firefighter get paid while their sleeping at the station, cooking up some Five Alarm Chili or reading girlie magazines while waiting for a fire or an automobile accident or something else to happen, they get their 40 hours a week in over the course of a couple of days and have off the rest of the week.

It’s a pretty sweet deal and any number of Niagara Falls firefighters have used the free time to study law, open bars and restaurants, build fences or seal driveways.

But not Gordon Stewart III.

As his moniker suggests, Stewart III is a serious man with serious interests. Like Democratic Party politics in the city of Niagara Falls. He apparently sucked up enough to Niagara Falls Mayor Paul Dyster and county Democratic Committee Chairman Nick Forster to land the coveted chairmanship of the city Democratic Committee, a job that was once held by a homeless man.

Few had ever heard of Stewart III before last week, when he took to the Facebook pages dedicated to Niagara Falls doings to deliver a statement.

The whole thing (see related story) was pretty much a pack of lies designed to make it seem as though city Councilman Glenn Choolokian had something to do with the 72nd Street water mains freezing two years in a row and that Dyster, like Mayor Michael O’Laughlin before him, was riding his white stallion to the rescue.

Clearly, Stewart III was unprepared for the howls of outrage by an informed Niagara Falls citizenry.

"I am confused," wrote Kathleen Masella Lloyd. "This statement makes no sense. Gordy should focus in his party and be part of a solution."

Stewart III, who apparently hates being called "Gordy," fired back.

"I'm sorry, do I know you?" he sniffed. Obviously, we couldn't hear his voice, but imagine it sounded pretty much like Jim Backus playing Thurston Howell III on the old "Gilligan's Island" TV series.

But the criticism continued. It got worse, in fact.

"Gordon, taken right from your remarks: We elect leaders to lead and appoint board members to help govern," wrote Dyster critic Candace Corsaro. "What happened? Is not the Mayor part of our leadership? If we had a city engineer, I am sure these pipes and many would be taken care of. After all, we had a great engineer the Mayor fired for doing his job on Lewiston Road."

Clearly, the wicket was getting a bit sticky for Stewart III. He bailed.

"Candace, those are not my remarks, they are County Chairman Nick Forster's," he wrote.