Readers’ Column for the week of Jan. 18, 2015

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.

In response to last week’s comment about OFA Football and what it takes to coach. There are A LOT of football coaches (with experience) that would love to coach that program. How much longer do we, in the community, sit back and wait for the current coach to retire?

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Congratulations to Mr. Ash who has retired. Please rest assured that the office will continue to operate as usual. The girls are still here and will continue to provide excellent service.

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With the completion of the Central Avenue 96 flyover, many of the traffic congestion and problems and the village of Owego will be arrested. Also, about the safety issue, I don’t know the weight that the Court Street Bridge was designed to accommodate, but when it’s plugged full of stopped traffic and trucks it’s got to be getting very near to its design and North Avenue is sometimes plugged up way back to East and West Street – and most of our emergency vehicles are locked into a traffic nightmare – so that flyover can’t come too soon.

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I went over to see the assessor on Dec. 22, 2014, and he had it at Railroad Avenue in Berkshire and that sidewalk was nothing but solid ice. They never put anything on it. You had to be very careful when you walked in there. I think the town should do something about that.

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To the caller who claims he lives on Whig Street in Newark Valley, we think that your calls to this column are very entertaining. Thank you. But to enlighten you by the facts, the Thrift Store was forced out of town because the owner of the building refused to fix the furnace and some plumbing issues. That falls on her, not the mayor or the village board. Second of all, the Farmhouse Brewery can’t sell alcohol to onsite consumption as well as any other business in Newark Valley. Newark Valley is one of two towns in Tioga County that does not permit onsite consumption. Again, that is not because of the mayor or the village board. That is what the residents of this great village have voted on for years. So please, give Newark Valley a sincere chance. It is truly a great town and place to live where people actually do care – not only about themselves, but also about their neighbors. Newark Valley has shown what a true small town is about in the U.S.A. We are truly a caring community where everybody cares about each other and looks out for each other. There’s a lot of pride here in Newark Valley.

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This is for a lady in Newark Valley, her name is Jeri. She agreed to take my little Pekinese upon my death and I can’t find her phone number. I was wondering if you can put your number in the Pennysaver and I will give you a call.

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Going bald to raise money for pediatric research March 8 at the Candor American Legion will be the 5th St. Baldrick’s event. Sign up to raise money for pediatric cancer research to find a cure for cancer so no parent will ever have to hear the word – your child has cancer. Go to www.stbaldricks.org and search for Candor, N.Y.

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I don’t know why people complain about Turkey Hill and Hollow Road, the plow knows it can get through because the paper boy and the school bus is gone, so they know they can get through.

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Four million people throughout France marched against radical Islamic terrorism this weekend. Emperor Obama, who had nothing on his busy schedule was not there, neither was Biden. Eric Holder was in France but he did not march in solidarity with the French people and many other world leaders. This inaction says a lot about the Obama regime.

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Being this us a republican paper I don’t know if you’ll print this or not. I don’t think that the Town of Owego Supervisor is qualified to handle our money. He can’t handle his own.

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Follow the news. The new republican leadership in congress has made announcements about potential budget cutting that they have on their immediate agenda. Guess where they want to start. They want to reduce by 20 percent the SSI checks that come to disabled Americans, many of whom have worked at jobs before they became disabled. They’re going to cut a meager $1,000 average allotment now down to about $800. These republicans are all heart. Is there anything that they can do that isn’t absolutely morally apprehensible and disgusting?

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This message is for the person who says fracking has changed. Well, it hasn’t changed all that much in the past 10 years. The only thing this person’s looking for is to make a payday. He doesn’t care about the environment or the people around him. Things do not change that fast.

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I would like to comment on all the favorably feedback to Mr. May’s Op-Ed two weeks ago in the Pennysaver. His positive approach to seeking options to the problems facing the village’s financial situation was very refreshing. He’s certainly putting in much effort in making a fair evaluation of where we are and how we can best approach things that can be done. For those of you that haven’t seen the article I suggest that you look it up. It is very enlightening. He addresses the very underhanded activities of a half a dozen ex-Owego firemen seeking to form a paid department that the taxpayers can afford. Consolidation of police efforts is also addressed as well as water and sewer efforts and costs. There was too much in the article for me to address. It was a nice piece of work. So I suggest you read it and give it some thought. Maybe Mr. May should be our mayor and things might show more progress.

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Why is this column used for free advertising?

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To the genius. Give it a break. People are starting to doubt you have any intelligence.

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I would like to know why the old Talcott Street School is still being heated. That building was damaged during the flood, and they moved the business offices. No one’s using it so why is it being heated? I think it’s just a waste of money.

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Yakking and yakking about fracking and disrespecting the President about every decision being made, anyone has to be crazy to want the job. How about you take it and let everyone disrespect you, make fun of your name, and draw comic caricatures of you with big ears.

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I read the article about obesity in this week’s Pennysaver. The answer to the obesity problem is to cut down on the number of commercials on television so people won’t have so much time to run to the kitchen to get snacks. That would really make a big difference to the obesity problem in this country.

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I am extremely concerned with the snow removal on Central Avenue in front of Family Planning and Mello Dear’s hall. You have pregnant women, babies, children, and other people parking on top of snow banks, slipping and falling and other things. I’m afraid someone might get hurt. I’m not sure who’s in charge of the snow removal, the shoulders of the road should be removed and the sidewalks cleared.

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The Obama regime promised you could keep your doctor and health plan and bamboozled its stooges into believing that. Now they are promising you a better Internet and the vote on obamacrat control of the Internet will be in February. Act now and demand your politician to vote against it even though companies like Comcast are actively lobbying for it.

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I’m calling about the issue of the red light on Court Street. I’m just wondering why they stopped making it a right on red. That’s a very dumb idea. It backs traffic up. The truck traffic coming from the other direction, they can’t turn on red so there shouldn’t be any problem at that light. I wanted to know why the DMV decided to make it illegal to turn right on red at that light. It’s ridiculous.

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Most people never heard of the TPP, but everyone who cares about good American jobs, an unpolluted environment, food safety, and other fundamentals – especially including our basic right to be a sovereign, self-governing people – should take a peek at this big nasty of a global trade scam. You’d find that the so-called 12-nation “partnership” actually has little to do with trade and everything to do with enthroning a plutocracy of global corporations over us. Rep. Keith Ellison has warned that TPP is the “largest corporate power grab you never heard of.”

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I just received my town and country tax bill and noticed that we don’t make our checks payable to Michael Zimmer, tax receiver this year. Why is this?

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Doug’s Fish Fry will be at Everybody’s Bulk Food, Rt. 17C, Owego on Jan. 29   from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. for your lunch and / or dinner to help support the Angels Over Afghanistan and Iraq organization. The girls will also be selling baked goods, thank you for your continued support!

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Do I understand this correctly? Governor Cuomo and Senator Libous are both for a big casino in our area that will take mostly the money of people who can least afford to lose it, but they are turning down the fracking that will bring prosperity to our poor state and give the general public more reasonable electric and gas bills? Something just doesn’t look right!

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Since 2008 there has been no growth in taxpayer real income. We had the Flood of 2011. Since 2008 the OACSD teachers’ salaries have, in real dollars, increased more than all other school Districts in New York State. OACSD’s highest salaries are provided to our younger and less qualified teachers than other high paying Districts.

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Has anyone heard anything about new sewer billing changes? If it’s slanted for/against ANY property, it will be unfair. I’m not sure why it’s taking so long to approve an EQUAL, across-the-board increase on all village properties based on historic water-usage data. It’s so simple.

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I enjoyed reading Mr. May ‘s article in the Pennysaver on OPTIONS. I do not like that his four musketeers and their OPTIONS led to 40 experienced firefighters leaving the village fire department, lost a $140,000 contract, increased sewer bills and are trying to abolish the village police. I hope that village voters have OPTIONS on Election Day March 17.

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On Thursday, Jan. 8 on the NBC evening news there was a segment about the many earthquakes at the present time in Texas that were absolutely attributed to fracking. I have seen nothing of this in the local papers. I wonder why?