Readers’ Column for the week of Aug. 16, 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.

The annual Angels Over Afghanistan and Iraq’s yard sale is Aug. 21 and 22 from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Owego United Methodist Church located at 261 Main St. in Owego. As in the past, it will be both outdoors as well as in fellowship hall. Thank you to all who have donated to this fundraiser, there are a lot of items priced to sell and the group is still accepting donations up until Thursday, Aug. 20. There will also be a bake sale, raffle items (gift certificates from local businesses), and a 50/50 raffle. All proceeds go towards the shipping costs and items for the care packages to our deployed soldiers. If you have someone that you would like to include in the address book, like us on Facebook and leave a message. Thank you for your continued support!

Solar panels just lap up the energy on these cool sunny days – a solar cell’s favorite food!

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There are different sewer charges for residential, business, and industrial users in the Village of Owego. You can call the village office at 687-3555 for sewer rate information.

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If OFD has the “Flat Rats” of Company #3, I guess Campville FD now has the “Jail Birds” based out of the Tioga County Jail!

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What a hoot! We go on a binge of guilt over Cecil the Lion having been killed. Meanwhile, we kill human babies and harvest their organs for profit. Residents of Zimbabwe have written letters to their newspaper thanking the U.S. dentist for having killed Cecil. Their reaction, “One less lion to kill and eat us.” Guess maybe it isn’t all that bad after all.

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It looks like all the people that want to disband OFD live in the Town of Owego Fire District. The Owego Fire Department, with a 150-year tradition of service to the village, will then become a fire district that can tax without taxpayer input or approval. Can village residents afford fire district taxes go up 37 percent?

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I hope that Village of Owego Trustees look at the 37 percent increase in the Town of Owego Fire District tax and NOT put Village taxpayers into a fire district that would surely follow the same example. Village residents cannot afford a tax increase, particularly one that is totally unnecessary.

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Would someone from the Richford Fire Department or Richford Fire District or Richford Fire Commissioners please reply in this column as to why Richford did not have a vehicle in the parade at the Owego Strawberry Festival or the Newark Valley Days parade? You have your chicken BBQ’s and other fundraisers and expect people to support them, but you can’t even represent Richford in events in neighboring towns. WHY?

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Like it or not, abortion is legal. These abortions produce fetal tissue, which is of great value to medical research teams seeking cures for some of mankind’s worse maladies. Conservative Republicans are trying to cut off funding for Planned Parenthood for supplying this tissue. I can see nothing wrong with what they are doing; perhaps, at least something positive might result from the abortion.

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Since the Campville Fire Department gets to park their fire truck free at the jail can I start parking my construction trucks their for my business? If they get free parking we all should. Besides I’m still trying to figure out how to pay for their 20 percent tax increase this year. I could use the help.

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I can’t believe it has been three years since I last wrote in this column about a change in pharmacies. I was allergic to my generic prescription and could no longer take it. I was paying $85.37 for the brand name until I talked to John at the Owego Pharmacy. John presented a plan for me and it worked. My prescription now costs me $5.08 a month. He has saved me $3,037.08 for one prescription in the last three years. He deserves a big thank you and the public needs to know how helpful they are at the Owego Pharmacy. Thank you John for being so caring and helpful.

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The Town of Owego Fire District raised taxes 37 percent for 2015. And now the Owego Fire Department wants to become a Fire District with taxing authority? Three of six village trustees are elected every year. One of five fire district commissioners is elected each year. Which group will do a better job of keeping village taxpayers in mind when they do a budget? Call your village trustee and urge them to keep village taxpayers in mind as they consider a fire district and to support OFD as it is.

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“For most farms, manure is a pungent problem. At Homestead Dairy, it smells like money. The family-run American farm invested in a biogas recovery system, which transforms cow poo and other waste into electricity. Enough electricity, in fact, to power 1,000 homes, a service which the local utility company pays for handsomely.” “Turning Cow Poo Into Power Is Profitable for US Farm” Mira Oberman. Yahoo News 8/9/15

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Taxpayers of Tioga Central School District beware. The 17.2 percent increase passes and now nothing is being said. Look at the school website, you can’t find any information about board meeting happenings. The school board has hired a math teacher to be high school principal; a position that we were told was going to be cut to save $90,000. Is this math teacher certified to be an administrator? They are hiring a new math teacher to replace him. We, the taxpayers have been bamboozled again by lies. Once the crying to pass the budget stopped, and it passed, it became business as usual again. None of this above information is on the school website. It still says that Mrs. Martin is the high school principal. She quickly jumped ship for another job before the budget vote. Shame on the school board and administration for such practices.

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Thank you to the Spencer-Candor Lion’s Club for providing the dinner and the Fine family for the cake for the Tioga County Relay for Life Survivor’s Dinner. Thank you to Denise and her granddaughter for helping at the dinner and the members of the Lion’s Clubs for serving the dinner.

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I don’t know who is supposed to be taking care of the cemeteries but the one on 96 looks terrible. It doesn’t look like it’s been mowed in a couple months. I don’t know who is supposed to be taking care of this or if they are supposed to be paid to be doing this – but I think they should start doing their job!

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Concerning the Mill Street Bridge in Candor, well the joke is on us, the taxpayers, with tearing down a beautiful bridge that was built in 1984 and replacing the steel reinforced concrete with I-beams.

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I hope Tioga Downs’ full casino license goes through so that people can then play table games like black jack and roulette and so on, which I like. I don’t really care for the slot machines.

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The administration of both the fire department and the police department in the Village of Owego is totally screwed up thanks to the Village Trustees who run both of them.

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I was wondering about the railroad crossing along the tracks towards black bridge. Can’t they put two posts with a chain across to keep cars from entering down that way – and on the other entrance near the opening of the Junior High to prevent cars from throwing their tires and garbage down into the creek?

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So who won the Fox debates? I think Carly Fiorina was head and shoulders above all other candidates in the first debates. She was the clear winner. In the big ten-second debate I thought John Kashich, Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz, Ben Carson, and Scott Walker were at the top and about equal. Your mileage may vary.

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I just feel that they should start changing some of the names of the roads in Tioga County and call them washboard alley because when you drive over them your vehicle bounces back and forth and jumps up and down because of the condition the roads are in.

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I have an older patio table with four chairs still in good condition and they are free. I cannot use them because I have a lot of allergies and I cannot stay outside. If interested contact me through this column.

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WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN? The fire departments in the Southern Tier have used mutual aide for decades to be able to really fight fires and save lives with their existing manpower. The Pennysaver even lists every time that they work together on any fire within the locality here or there. If you have a beef, get out there and volunteer as an EMS, a volunteer or in the auxiliary, give these folks a hand!

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I just wanted to say I definitely agree with the person who called in about the flip-flops. Maybe this school year we can have the elementary kids not wear them to school. They are so unsafe not to mention unsanitary and bad for your feet. Understand that middle school and high schools want to follow the college kids and they want to wear the flip-flops but please, let’s protect our little ones.

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What we need in the election in 2016 in the White House is a Donald Trump type. Not necessarily him, but his type – someone who is not bought and paid for by all the special interest groups. Someone who can stand up and tell the people like it is whether they’d like to hear it or not. We need someone who has solutions to the problems and is not afraid to tackle the hard ones, someone that has experience dealing with foreign policies, foreign government, etc. We don’t need anymore of these mealy mouth career politicians. They’re just interested in their own self-interest and satisfying those who are buying and paying for them. We need someone with guts, someone who could stand up, someone who can make this country great again.

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Do you know the real reason Obama and Cuomo opposed fracking and other methods of cutting fossil fuels? Because the Federal and State government get a percentage of each gallon of gasoline sold. It is to their benefit to keep the price of gas as high as possible. Fracking and ethanol are deeply cutting into their greedy hands and they don’t like it. Wake up America!

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I would like to thank Pete and Sherry Claire of Turkey Trot Acres in Candor, N.Y. They had an excellent show with New Riders of the Purple Sage. Looking forward to next year, maybe we can get Commander Cody and His Lost Planet Airmen.

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Follow the news. Iran crisis: 29 top U.S. scientists have written President Obama that they support the Iran nuclear deal. Chuck Schumer does not, but Chuck’s seat is safe. He has a war chest of campaign funds beyond imagination. No one will dare to tackle the guy.

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This wonderful organization known as Planned Parenthood apparently receives untold hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars to help with their program. In addition to this, apparently to generate additional revenue they also are dissecting aborted fetuses and harvesting body parts out of these aborted fetuses and selling them on the open market. I find this practice to be not only barbaric and immoral, but is also appears to be illegal. I think their fund should be defunded from the Federal Government and also, the people who are involved in this practice of selling human body parts should spend a few years at Fort Leavenworth. Perhaps they’ll learn something from that and in the end perhaps their next program will be to try to build a Frankenstein monster.

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Nobama compares Republicans to the Iranian hardliners. Hopefully the Republicans will bamboozle the nobama zombies in the 2016 election just as the Iranians did with the nobama/Iran treaty fiasco.

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I see where the news stated our real brilliant supervisor is trying to take our superintendent’s job away from him again. That’s just taking our voting away from us. That’s not going to happen, I hope!

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I’d like to thank the Tioga County Highway garage, Gary Hammond and all of his crew for the opening of the Park Settlement Bridge in a timely manner. This is the mayor of the Park Settlement Road.

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He left us a year ago on Aug. 17; you and I were friends for over 50 years. There isn’t a day that goes by that I don’t think about you. The times we sat at the table, around the front porch and you’re missed a lot by everyone. You take good care of everyone. As the song says, every time I think of you I just drink a beer. Your friend, Dan.

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What is the real reason why the Owego Fire Department wants to be able to tax village residents?

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People put their homes in their kids’ names in case they have to go into a nursing home. Then, taxpayers would have to pay for them instead of them losing their homes in order for them to pay their medical bills. But they still claim New York State Star Exemption for owners being over 65. The owners aren’t over 65 if it’s in the kids’ names. How is that fair?