Readers’ Column for the week of March 8, 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.

I had an accident with my car, hit the bumper and tore it off. I took it to Dave’s body Shop. They do a great job! They saved me some money; not only did they fix my car, they cleaned it inside and out! If you have an accident take it to Dave’s Body Shop. Thank you Chuck and Tim!

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I’ve studied this now for a little over five years and I’ve noted before that, there’s a right way and a wrong way to do things. With the Owego Highway they have a new way, a right way, a wrong way and the DOT way!

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I have a question. Where have all the global warming semantics gone this winter? I haven’t heard a peep out of them. Have they all gone down the woodchuck hole?

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Having John Kerry and nobama negotiate a nuclear treaty with Iran is like Nevelle Chamberlain negotiating with Hitler or Benedict Arnold negotiating with the King of England. I don’t think it will work.

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With Sheriff Howard in attendance at the village board meeting, the village board once again refuses to hire police officers.

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Abolish the Owego Police Department? Let’s get real Owego! It’s plenty big enough to warrant having a police department. So why do these temporary people on the village board feel they, and only they, qualify to do away with it? It should be up to the people to make that decision. Now let’s look at the alternate coverage proposed about a week or so ago from another self-appointed expert. With the state police on the south side of Owego and a sheriff on the north side, how can we justify an Owego Police force? Well, let’s look at your proposal Mr. expert. Just what kind of coverage would the state or police provide? Will they patrol all the side streets or just North Avenue and Main Street? Well they know where a lot of elderly people live that might need quick help. Do you know where all the crime hot spots are or what people need watching? Well do they know the back allies or where all the streets are? I don’t think so. Only the OPD know this. Keep the OPD and bring it up to full force. It must be voted on by the residents, period. How about a write in from the village residents and address it to the mayor, 90 Temple St., Owego, N.Y. 13827. Let them know how you feel about it.

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On Iran developing a nuclear bomb. George Bush did nothing in his eight years about Iran developing a nuclear bomb. Now Obama administration is on its 6th year and Iran is still moving forward developing nuclear bombs, so if Iran doesn’t have a nuclear bomb by now it’s nobody’s fault but Iran’s.

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The Mayor says the sidewalks are to be shoveled daily and those who don’t will be ticketed. I see many more occupied houses not shoveled even once in a while. Is the village making lots of money in fines or is this just a threat and a promise? Who goes around the village every day to see the offenders? Just out of curiosity, how much would a fine be if I didn’t shovel because it was cheaper than hiring someone? It’s been a long winter and I hope it doesn’t melt all at once with all the rain and there will be another flood – and are we ready for that as we are for cleared sidewalks.

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Want to know what Obama’s secret negotiation with Iran over being a nuclear power is? Well here is one speculation. Iran gets everything it wants in return for going to war with Isis. Simple as that, and Israel fends for itself.

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I’d like to know who is responsible for shoveling the sidewalks in Candor. Nobody seems to have an answer for that. It’s been a rough winter walking my daughter to school everyday, it’s been quite challenging. More often times than not we’ve been forced to walk in the road when we cross the bridge. It’s not safe.

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I just wanted to thank the Owego Department of Public Works for keeping the roads plowed. They’ve looked great the last couple of weeks and the sidewalks have also been picked up with the exception of the underpass. I haven’t had one problem walking downtown to all the shops on Riverrow, the sidewalks are clear, everything looks great. Keep up the good work!

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Many thanks to the Town of Owego Highway men. They are the best! We appreciate your help with our icy driveway again this year. I guess the springs out back didn’t freeze up all winter under that deep snow. Thank you!

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Be aware of scams! I’ve gotten phone calls from different people about a large prize I have won and large amounts of money also but I need to send out money in a money order to receive the gift. They are scam artists. Don’t give them any personal information about anything. They ask about your address, credit cards, banks and so on.

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I’m responding to the person who was wondering who the crazy people were in the store of The American Sniper. The man who shot Chris was not crazy. He was found sane by the courts and pleaded temporary insanity as a way of lessoning his sentence for murder. Chris did not just kick that man and take him to the range. The former patient was cleared by the psychiatrist and the counselor. He was found not to be a threat to himself or others before he was referred to the program. Chris was working under the belief that there was no danger.

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I have a suggestion for the Town of Owego that borders Pennsylvania, maybe we ought to think a little bit about succeeding to Pennsylvania. It’s lesser mandates on the school systems, lesser mandates on the local government. Maybe we ought to look at it, in the plus maybe we could do fracking besides. Everybody think about that a little bit.

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Is it true that certain federal employees (including school teachers and selected others) automatically have their student loans dismissed after twelve years? After paying on our loans for over eighteen years, we decided to re-mortgage our home to pay off the outstanding balances on our loans because of the high interest rate being charged. We are hardworking twelve month a year employees who do not enjoy the extended summer vacations off nor do we have every federal holiday off as well! Can someone clear this up for us? Thanks!

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It sure seems like all the politicians and lawyers are sticking it to Mr. Gural. He is the only one who put his money up front prior to the vote for casinos in this area. Now, everyone wants to get into the act again. The latest is the Johnny-come-lately Mayor of Binghamton who has not had a clue up until now, nor a dime invested, and he wants to put a casino in the city. Where on earth is he going to put it? Maybe he will eliminate a few hundred more parking places. He should tend to all the troubles he currently has instead of trying to invent more and no money to cover them with.

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The failure of the Owego Village Board to approve the major upgrade to the SOP’s for the Owego Fire Department has been posted to YouTube. It can be found on youtube.com at “Owego Village Board 5/19/2014”.

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In the March 9 edition of Time magazine I learned about the death of Clark Terry, one of the giants of jazz trumpet playing, at age 94. He had this to say about his philosophy of life: “Your mind is a powerful asset. Use it for positive thoughts and you’ll learn what I’ve learned. I call it getting on the plateau of positivity.” Good advice.

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Over the past year positive change trustees were in the majority on the village board. They said they would get the EMS squad to change from a village paid countywide non-emergency transport service to a sustainable village emergency medical service. They did not do that. They said they would look at options to OPD and save the village money. They did not do that. They said they would fix the sewer billing issue. They did not do that. Fact or rumor? You decide! On March 18!

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It seems the arguments for and against fracking have largely ignored one of the most serious problems with this mining practice: possible pollution of the aquifer. Unlike some underground water supplies, the pure New York State aquifer is a huge contiguous network of interconnected bodies of water extending for hundreds of square miles under upstate New York. It’s all connected. If one part is polluted, the whole is contaminated. It only takes one underground pipe break like the Shell disaster in the Gulf and we’ll all be buying bottled drinking water forever. Many other negative aspects of fracking such as the processing of huge volumes of waste fracking liquid, managing endless caravans of heavy trucks, and disguising unsightly wells are solvable problems but pollution of our one and only aquifer is irreversible and would be disastrous. Our state leaders made the right decision to ban fracking.

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“A beaver dam prevents 27,500 gallons of Chevron diesel oil from contaminating Willard Bay, a 10,000-acre reservoir in Utah. The family of six beavers suffer burned skin and eyes from the fuel and are treated at a wildlife rehabilitation center.” Sierra Magazine. July/August 2013

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To clarify: The Pennysaver made a little goof, in my comment to this column. They substituted IBM for IMB. IMB is Indy Mac Bank. A natural mistake in our area, where the order of those three letters are so ingrained in our thinking. IBM had nothing to do with my losing my entire ROTH IRA. Just IMB, (Indy Mac Bank) and “Bank Run Chuck Schumer”!

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I believe, we are in desperate need of a forensic audit of Tioga County, the Town of Owego and the Village of Owego, and all related county, town and village entities. Only then, would residents of Tioga County and the Village and Town of Owego, get an honest picture of where the dishonorable financial inequities lie within Tioga County, as well as within the Town and Village of Owego. I can assure you that the Owego Police Department and its relative operating budget, although a good distraction and a frequently used scapegoat, is not very far from our real problems.

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Our “dear leader” recently made the ludicrous remark that the Muslim religion is intertwined in the history of America. He is correct. It was Muslim “hunters” who captured Africans, handed them over to Dutch traders, who transported them to American to be sold as slaves. In the early days, it was thought camels would be useful in the deserts in the southwest to combat the Indians. A Muslim was brought in to raise the camels. The whole camel thing was an abject failure. The Indian ponies could quickly outrun the camels. The camels became a laughing stock for the Indians. Big, significant Muslim involvement, wouldn’t you agree? Like most of what Nobama says, needs to be taken with about a ton of salt, then fact checked.

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If Owego Village Residents, want something done about their unfair water and sewer bills, they need to quit writing about it in the reader’s column and band together and hire an attorney.

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I’m an outsider looking in at the Owego drama. I’m wondering why “ongoing internal issues” are a reason to scrutinize and propose eliminating the Owego Police Department but the very public, rancorous, divisive issues in the Owego Fire Department didn’t have the same effect there?

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Could someone please tell me the requirements for voting for the Owego / Apalachin school budget, residency, age, property owner, etc. Also, what is required to vote in the Owego Village election in March.

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Tioga Central SD is on the west and Vestal SD on our east. For the 2012-13 School Year the educational cost per student for Tioga Central, Vestal, and OACSD was $7,852, $11,327, and $13,329, respectively. For the 2013-14 School Year the 3rd through 8th mathematics proficiency level of students meeting or exceeding standard was 45, 50 and 34 percent, respectively. Tioga Central manages to get a huge bang for their buck! Note Tioga, like property taxes, is about half our cost. Perhaps OACSD could strive (set a goal) to achieve academic performance equivalent to our neighbors?

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“Iran does not have a nuclear bomb and is signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. Despite what is constantly alleged in the Western press and by Western politicians, there is no evidence that Iran has an active nuclear weapons program; and, the theocratic Supreme Leader has forbidden making, stockpiling and using nuclear weapons. In contrast, Israel refused to sign the NPT and has several hundred nuclear warheads, which it constructed stealthily, including through acts of espionage and smuggling in the United States, and against the wishes of Presidents Kennedy and Johnson. And, its leaders have more than once implied they are ready to use it; then prime minister Ariel Sharon alarmed George W. Bush when he intimated that he’d nuke Baghdad if Saddam tried to send SCUDs tipped with gas on Israel.” From “Five Surprising Ways Iran Is Better Than Israel”. By Juan Cole. Feb. 27, 2015

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Are those folks running public television nuts? Every time they try to raise money they take off the shows we watch and air a bunch of crap. Might just be the reason their pledge drives come up short.

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Who said “wherever there is methane, there is radon”?

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What a hoot! The tree hugger crowd would like us to think that fracking is causing a huge cloud of methane to hover over New Mexico. I’ve been to New Mexico. The area they are talking about is “home” to huge feedlots of 25,000 – 40,000 head of beef cows in one place. Don’t look now, but the leading source of methane gas is cow farts, NOT fracking. Scientific fact.

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It sure seems like the defense for Cal Harris has nothing but mistrial, mistrial on their mind for their defense. Next, they will be trying to wear out the jurors and go from there. What a sad commentary for justice and our judicial system.