Readers’ Column for the week of Oct. 18, 2014

You may call the Owego Pennysaver Readers’ Column at (607) 687-2378 24-hours a day, or e-mail comments to readerscolumn@stny.rr.com. We reserve the right to revise or reject any message.

The Owego Village sewer rates are wrong and unfair to landlords and business owners. Call the mayor at 687-1710 or Ron Horton 687-2282. They are currently adjusting the rates.

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The person who put together that soup is good ad against Astorino is pretty stupid. Whoever came up with this should be fired because it is a stupid thing, not at all something that would get me to vote for somebody else.

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There are 1 million people in West Africa under quarantine for Ebola. Our own CDC predicts 1.4 million cases of Ebola in West Africa by January. There are 10,000 people per day flying out of West Africa on at least 60 nonstop flights. All nonessential personnel in or out of West Africa should be stopped immediately. It took the CDC two weeks to even initiate airport temperature scans which were immediately suggested by U.S. doctors. Once again the Obama regime was unprepared for this even though Ebola outbreaks are not new. The public needs better protection, not smoke screen pronouncements.

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Reward for stolen Pelican green canoe from a residence in Berkshire, N.Y. I will pay a reward leading to the information about the person or persons that stole my canoe. Please report this to the Tioga County Sheriff – they know who to get in touch with. The reward will be paid when the charges are pressed. To the person or person who stole my canoe, if you came and asked me if you could use it, you could have used it. I hope someone saw you because I will press charges. You can return the canoe and just maybe I won’t press charges.

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Today is Sunday, Oct. 12. I’ve called in several times with an opinion that I have in regards to sportsmen and hunting that I guess this column doesn’t want to print for some reason or another. I’ll just change the topic to say that sportsmen are the best conservationists ever and they do not want to see wildlife or game disappear because that’s all part of the sport, but I really need the Town of Owego and I have not seen a single monarch butterfly this year. I used to see tons of them come through, and the bees are gone. Just wondering if anyone else wonders what happened to all the bees and the butterflies, the swallowtails and the monarchs. The world is changing and again, as a sportsman and hunter that’s the worst possible thing that we could see. Everybody else should understand that conservationists or hunters are the best conservationists on the planet. There’s no question about it.

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How refreshing to read about a young person who is selflessly devoting his time and energy to help dogs in trouble through no fault of their own by organizing a collection of items needed at the Front Street dog shelter in Binghamton. Do consider donating to this worthy cause if you can. PLEASE also consider a donation to our own no kill shelter here in Tioga County who serves not only dogs but also cats and kittens in need. They, in addition to several other organizations in the Owego area, are also in desperate need of funding and foot to help the animals they care for, especially with cold weather rapidly approaching.

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I’m hoping someone out there can explain the school tax business to me. First of all, when the lottery came into being, so much of the money was going to go to our school districts. Then, when gambling casinos came to be, part of their profit goes to school taxes and yet your school taxes go up and up and up. Is it creative financing on the part of the state? Can someone explain to me where all these funds are going or is the state no longer supplementing and it’s simply money from the lottery and the casinos?

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Obama, on one of his never ending democratic fundraisers, said he is for capitalism and that the republicans are for billionaires. Well let’s look at who hosted his latest fundraisers. Obama stayed at the $34 million estate of Rich Richmond, that’s not joke. Richie is worth $10 billion. Another fundraiser was hosted by George Soros whose net worth is $24 billion, and who favors socialism for the low information voters who follow him but not for him. The richest members of congress are also democrats. How about that? Obama should look in the mirror and see what a hypocrite really looks like.

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I’m sure a lot of the readers don’t even think about Madoff and the ponzi scheme that he created that bilked investors out of billions and billions of dollars, but there is a larger one. It’s the largest one, he’s an amateur when it compares. Yes, I’m talking about the social security administration. If you invest in something through somebody like him and maybe those people are a little bit greedy thinking they were going to get these large returns, but they had a choice. The fact of the matter is, the government takes 6 percent of your hard earned money through your lifetime and also your employers had to max 6 percent. Just try to go and get that. Even though you’ve earned the credits, it’s your own money! God forbid if you become disabled and then have to go in front of an administrative law judge that says no, you’re not dead, you didn’t die, there are national jobs out there that you can do and just sit regardless of your cancer or your health. They couldn’t trust me to put that money in my own name or invest it, giving it to them – it’s the same thing!

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Can anyone explain how Isis can take over Iraq in a few short weeks and we couldn’t take it over in 10 years with all of our military?

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Happy Columbus Day everybody! It’s Monday, it’s me again. I know the choice of printing or not printing people’s comments in this column. I’m so glad there’s no more fracking stuff, no more Owego fire department, and I’ve left several messages on my opinion about hunters and conservation. I’m not sure what this liberal paper will print but I will just tell you the biggest ponzi scheme ever devised was the social security administration. God forbid that you ever want to have to take your money that was taken from you, 6 percent of your own money, and 6 percent from your employer so that it would be there when you needed it. So, in my time frame, full retirement age was 62 and then it went to 65, then it goes to 67 and now it’s going to go to 70. Again, God forbid you have a disability. It’s your own money because the government couldn’t trust you to put your own money into a 401k or your own private savings plan. What’s the difference if I didn’t have the discipline to put that money away if the government just stole it from me? I’m in the fight of my life now for the money that was taken from me, and I’m disabled. An administrative law judge says I haven’t suffered enough that I don’t qualify, even though it’s my money! If anyone else would like to chime in I would like to hear from the rest of the readers that have the same kind of frustrations.

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This is to inform all of the residents of the village of Candor that we now have ATV’s that can run on all of our streets because a public forum was done and the only way anybody knew about it was the village website or you buy the Candor Chronicle, which costs $.75. And also, the school wants a brand new school bus garage after the school vote turned it down before. So they’re going to do just like the town, go behind everybody’s back. That’s how we got a new town barn, after it was all voted down.

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We are being lied to about Ebola, how it spreads, and why travel between the U.S. and West Africa cannot be stopped. The head of the CDC is a democrat political hack with ties to the New York City mayor. When Ebola spreads to the Latin American countries and when they cross our southern border, you will see a real catastrophe. When will the leaders of this country tell us the truth?

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Consumer alert, consumer fraud. We’ve all heard the warnings. How about thinking in those terms as you think about voting in the November mid term election. Would you buy anything with an approval rating of less than 10 percent, a car, major appliance, anything? Of course not! So why then would you vote to return a millionaire politician to the House of Representatives where the acknowledged approval rate is less than 10 percent? We hear lies from him about creating a balanced budget. That’s a cruel joke. No provisions are made for natural calamities, wars, or health epidemics such as the current Ebola fiasco. In fact, the republican obstructionists have refused to fill the vacancy of Surgeon General because controlling right wing extremist republicans don’t like his views. We are only now learning how many hundreds of billions of dollars have been stolen in Afghanistan and Iraq. A reader noted that Tioga County is the poorest in New York State. We can do better, vote for Martha Roberson for your future wellbeing.

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President Obama said on Sept. 16 that the chances of Ebola reaching our shores was “extremely low”, therefore there was no need for a travel ban or guarding of our southern border. When the disease broke out here we were told that transmission was unlikely, one had to come into direct contact with bodily fluids. Now we know that all that was untrue. No one knows how the infection happened when a nurse was infected, even when she wore a protective suit. The democrats bungled the Obamacare and the containment of this deadly disease. We are lied to at every step.

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I have been an electrician for over 40 years. I’m tired of these electrical outfits advertising you have to have a licensed electrician to do your work for you. People of the public, don’t be duped by this. New York State doesn’t license any electricians, plumbers, carpenters or anyone else. Licenses come from the money hungry unions for their workers like in Binghamton. A lot of towns and villages do require a work permit to work in their towns only to protect their citizens from workers without insurance.

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This is to the piece of scum who thought it was okay to trespass on our property in the town of Richford and steal the snow tires that we had for sale. I have big news flash for you – you’re going to be extremely sorry when we find you. You have a lot of gall to sneak through the night helping yourself to things that don’t belong to you. The police have been called and you will be hunted down and arrested. Thank you for taking away our sense of security and trust. You are truly a piece of scum. Redeem yourself by either returning the tires or pay us the $200 for them.

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Democrats as usual never fail to utilize a tragedy for election purposes. You have heard the nonsense about republicans defending the CDC. Here’s the truth. Obama’s CDC has been funded $3 billion over the last five years. Guess where the money went. Well, 6 percent went to epidemiology infrastructure improvement to handle cases like Ebola. Most of your taxpayer dollars went to improving bike paths and sidewalk safety and promoting farm produce, and $1.5 million went to helping athletes and golfers, maybe that includes Obama, to improve their games. The CDC director just said, “Stopping Ebola is hard.” No kidding Mr. director.

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Vote no to the Candor school district proposed bus garage expansion. Taxpayers can’t afford it. Candor has no big business located in this district. There’s not a large enough tax base and it’s unneeded. Let’s fix up the garage we have. Vote no.

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Why is sewer treatment more expensive in the coolest town in America than it is in the biggest city in America?

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I have been reading in the Owego Pennysaver about a lady in Nichols that was talking about her school taxes being raised. I have lived in Spencer area for about five years now, and when I first moved here my taxes were about $600 and now they’re way up to almost $1,500 in the last five years.

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My town fire tax has gone up 18.8 percent since 2011. I wonder what the increase is going to be when they build this $2 million new firehouse? Can anyone explain why the public doesn’t get a vote on this new station like they did in Vestal, Berkshire and Apalachin?

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It will cost 1.1 million to build a new fire station. That is more than ten years of contract money. Where did they get all that money? Have they been overtaxing town residents, and for how long? I hear we don’t have a choice on the matter. How can that be? Attention all Owego Town taxpayers, please attend the hearing on the budget Oct. 21, at 7 p.m. at Campville Station #1 and voice your opinion.

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So by ending its contract with the Village of Owego and building a new $1.5 million fire station on Route 38, Campville will pass four Owego fire stations responding to an emergency in my neighborhood on the Southside? That is some real fire coordination right there!

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If OA is going to use Twitter to announce sports scores they should tweet all of them including loses.

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Financial irresponsibility has damaging repercussions beyond our OACSD. The Vestal School District has been in a prolonged battle with their Teachers Union as they are pushing for salaries, pensions, and benefits as high as our District. Our District over the past two years has secretly passed out raises to the highest paid teachers in the Southern Tier. This without any budget to cover the increases. This is the standard operating procedure for our BOE. So much for compliance with the District’s goal of transparency in financial matters. For the most expensive teachers our students have an ever-decreasing teaching staff. Union raises seem not to merit the attention of our District’s Public Information Officer or Just the Facts department.

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It would be very helpful to lay people if the doctor or the pharmacy would state the type of or purpose for prescription. For example, bp (blood pressure), chol (cholesterol), can (cancer), iron, pain, sleep, and so on. I take about seven meds and really have to concentrate on which one is for what because they all have only a long pharmaceutical name.

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Jean’s phone number is 687-2069. She replaces zippers, hems, and does alterations.

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Doesn’t it make more sense that when travelers from Ebola stricken countries want to come to the United States they should get their temperatures taken and then spend the 21-day incubation period there instead of coming here to find out if they have it?

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I recently went to the Town of Nichols for jury duty; and we were told we had to use a port-a-john because the septic system wasn’t working right. Come to find out it has been broken for some time and they refuse to fix it. How can a town board that is after everyone too clean up the town, stand by and allow sewage to leak out into the yard if too many people use it? I love double standards.

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Losing the Tioga bus system will have a trickle down effect. I’ve ridden the Tioga Transit bus back and forth to work for over three years. After getting home I would often go into Owego for dinner, take-out, groceries and gas. Now that I will be driving to work I will be doing my shopping after I get out of work in Ithaca. I won’t have a reason to go to Owego much anymore.

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So now that the “World Wide Web” has matured into something that seems more and more like a digital Ebola virus, where-oh-where is your hero Al Gore, “inventor of the internet”? I would have thought he could just write a code change or send out a digital patch or (maybe more his style) invent a software fix that “for only $19.95 you too can fix your internet hacker susceptibility” for all the masses. Sometimes you have to be careful what you wish for, don’t you think? Yeah, keep putting your whole life out there on the web for all to see and always carry your personal electronic device not only with you – but also in your hand, even when driving so that in case you get a “YOUTWITFACE” hit, you can respond immediately. Gee. How did we ever exist before this? Think about it.

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I had some sympathy for the Senior Citizen who wants to be able to make their tax payments in two installments, but then they lost my sympathy when they said that only property owners should be able to vote on school budgets. When you were raising four children as a single parent all those years ago, I bet you were happy that everyone in the community chipped in – yes, even renters, so that your children could get an education. How quickly you forget when your children are grown and gone, and now you want to restrict voting on school budgets. Shame on you. Everyone in the community stands to gain by providing a good education for all of our children, and education is the only sure way to raise people out of poverty.

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Words of Wisdom: “Every day do something that won’t compute” — Wendell Berry

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Regarding the People’s Climate March Photos published in last week’s paper, the photos show the marchers with signs that read: “Stop Funding Fossils, Be Cool Don’t Use Fossil Fuel, and Pipelines Delivering Pollution 24/7/365.” Think about those slogans then take a closer look at the photos and the hypocrisy jumps out at you. Their signs, clothes, glasses, backpacks, shoes, hair dye, and inflatable cow are all made from oil. Then the photo with the diesel powered bus in the background that transported the marchers to the event tops it all off. “Stop Funding Fossils?” Taking the bus is funding fossils in addition to all those products you used for the march, especially the plastic cow. You people are the ones keeping the oil and gas companies in business. Why don’t you folks set an example and live your own messages, which is a life without fossil fuels? It can be done but you don’t want to change, you just want everyone else to change for you. Finally, New York State gets 60 percent of its energy from natural gas to keep the lights on and our homes warm in the winters. However, the very people who don’t want fracking, like my Owego neighbors, are the ones who depend upon natural gas the most and won’t change. Don’t just protest for change, BE THE CHANGE! Here is my slogan, “Be Cool Stop Being a Hypocritical Fool.”