Readers’ Column for the week of March 19, 2017

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.

Making America great again begins at home. I want to thank our neighbors, Gary Gaylord and his sons Matt and Nate. My wife and I live alone. I cannot walk and my wife has been sick in bed for two days. Without being asked, Gary and his sons have shoveled our driveway and deck, fed our pigs and chickens, collected eggs, and even ran to the store for us for those two days. This is the America I grew up in, neighbors helping neighbors. From the Bottom of our hearts, thank-you Gary, Matt and Nate.

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According to the dictionary, a nor’easter is a storm that comes out of the north and east. Our recent storm came from the southwest, south and west. Should it be called a nor’easter?

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On the third Tuesday of every year in New York State it is consistent wherein all Villages hold elections for open offices to administrate your tax dollars for services provided. This year it is March 21. It is also consistent by a review of the number of eligible voters, that the actual count of casted votes in village elections is abysmal. It is also consistent that during the post-election the public outcry of those who are elected is both numerous and hypercritical. When one local community had a bloc of voters who chose to support a write in candidate who then was overwhelming elected as mayor, it was said by many, post-election, that those who showed up to vote high-jacked the election with a write-in and that it was unfair and undemocratic. An open election cannot be unfair or high jacked if those who are eligible to vote stay home and take a pass. Those of you who tend to vote with your mouth instead of a ballot may want to keep this in mind.

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I agree with the reader commenting about the engine idling problem. It’s funny to see parents sitting in their hybrid cars with the engine running to keep warm, waiting to pick up kids at school. If you are concerned about fuel economy and the environment, put a thicker coat on. Imagine what could be done with the 3.8 million gallons of wasted gas. Some quick Googling shows that’s enough energy to power over 11,700 U.S. homes for a year. Come on electric cars!

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Thanks to the reader who posted the woodstove excerpt. I feel the same way about mine. A woodstove is more than a box with a fire in it. It represents sustainability, security and cheerfulness at a time of the year when it’s most needed. Thanks for putting something positive in the column.

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I would like to comment about the vote taken at the Owego Fire Board meeting on March 1. There were two votes taken on terminating two life members. The first was 13 – 0 to not terminate one member. The second was 7 – 5 – 1 to not terminate the second member. Both members survived this vote and remained life members of OFD. The second member did nothing wrong but present this issue to the fireboard, but they went on a witch-hunt and almost succeeded. There are five companies in the OFD, and each company gets two votes. Two votes per company times five makes ten. (Each company should be voting the wishes of their company after bringing any issue back to there regular Monthly meeting and voting the wishes of their company whether they are in agreement or not). Thirteen votes were taken and accepted, who made the other three and how can one abstain if the company did not vote that way? There is talk of unity and that is great, but as soon as the speech of unity was done the witch-hunt started all over again. There needs to be an overhaul of the fireboard because it is not working. It continues to be us against them and that is sad. I’m for unity.

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We are the Big Horn Lenape Nation, a Tribe of Eastern Delaware / Lenape People. Our aims and goals are to renew and to share our culture, spirituality, language and traditions. If you are interested, have Native ancestry, or are looking for a tribal connection, we are open to meeting with you in council, ceremony, drumming and song and powwows. You may contact us at hittak@yahoo.com or check us out at our website, bighornlenape.com.

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Is there anyone else on Time Warner that is having trouble getting e-mail service? There are times that I have no service and they run me thru a bunch of exercises and still no solution. Eventually it starts working again. Please, is anyone in Owego having this problem? I get no help from tech support.

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Thank you Town of Owego road crew! I have absolutely no complaints about the job the crew did during winter storm Stella. I live on a small cul de sac in Apalachin and I am sure that keeping the road clear is not a simple task. However, the men maneuvered around it so that no driveway was left plowed in and the fire hydrant was accessible. I was in awe of the job they did. Just remember that they put in a lot of hours and their own safety into clearing ALL of OUR roads for OUR safety. Again, THANK YOU GUYS!

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On Friday, March 24, there is a corn bag tournament at the VFW. It starts at 7 p.m. and is $5 per person. We draw for partners. Sign up by 6:30 if interested. 

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Village of Newark Valley taxpayers beware! The mayor and the trustees have acquired the ladder factory for the village. They are using taxpayer dollars to secure all the windows. They have their employees down there covering up the windows and doors. Stop them, go to the board meeting, stop the village trustees and the mayor. They ought to be paying for all of that out of their pocket, not the taxpayers.

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Why does the Village of Owego keep talking about an electric company we’ve been working with for ten years and they never explain what they do for us. 

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Village of Newark Valley residents beware! The mayor has spent over $650 for materials for this ladder factory at Clinton and Rewey Avenue. Stop them and make sure the mayor and the trustees pay for this out of their own pocket, not the taxpayers. 

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I live on Norris Avenue in the Ross Corners area and I called in a couple weeks ago about the “race track” we’re having on Norris Avenue in Vestal and we don’t seem to get it published in the paper. I wonder why we don’t get it published in the paper because it’s nothing but a racetrack here. We have a 30 mph speed limit here on this street because we have a blind man that walks with his dog every day and yet here they go again on Saturday morning at 50 mph on Norris Avenue. I wonder why we can’t get help here from the Vestal police. 

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There used to be an old saying, “walk a mile in my shoes”, which means put yourself in the other person’s place. If you are physically capable of putting your recycle bin out for pick up, first, thank your lucky stars that you are. Secondly, think of the employee who spends eight hours in subfreezing heat, snow and pouring rain, hopping off and on the back of a recycle truck, hauling and heaving the heavy bins. Are you really so inconvenienced or are you just so lazy that you can’t pull over a second and move your empty bin out of your way? You’d probably complain if it were left somewhere else anyway. If it’s such a hardship for you then just don’t bother.

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Thank you to all who made the benefit for Willow’s Wings, an animal sanctuary in Maine, N.Y. a success! Special thanks to Janet Evenson of the Route 38 Bar and Grill for offering her place to have this event, to the merchants and individuals who donated items for the Chinese Auction and the raffles, also to people who volunteered to work the event. We were able to present Willow with $1,000 of proceeds from this and are very grateful for everyone’s help.

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I live on McMaster Street and have the best neighbors! They shoveled and plowed for a long time to clear the snow after the storm. Many thanks to the family.

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Town of Owego road crew, thank you very much for coming to make a lane and taking care of all the snow we got. All we did was make one phone call and within 15 minutes they were here. We really appreciate you getting out of your normal schedule to come and take care of our road. Thanks again!

National Political Viewpoints

Note to President Trump: If you don’t want embarrassing things leaked, don’t do embarrassing things.

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Hawaii is suing the Trump administration for his latest travel ban. The executive order hurts the feelings of Muslims? Well the Koran saying, “Take no Christian or Jew for your friend”, “We will put terror into the hearts of the unbelievers”, “We will slay the unbelievers wherever we find them”, hurts my feelings! You open border people are suicidal!

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Amazing! Since President Trump came to office, labor participation rate has increased, unemployment is down, and the national debt has decreased by $60 billion. Interesting when you have a President who loves this country, gets to work making things better, and can actually get past a golf course without playing or taking a vacation at taxpayer expense and gets something accomplished! Why did we put up with the nonsense we did for eight way too long years, instead of impeaching that pretender and getting on with life?

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I just heard Paul Ryan on the Healthcare Legislation proposals. My takeaway is that the problem with Obamacare is with the private health insurance industry and the profit motive. Instead of our taxes subsidizing the insurance companies the government should save money by using our tax dollars to pay the doctors and hospitals directly for our care.

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Approximately 300,000 private sector jobs added in February, more on the way due to the Nov. 8 election of Donald Trump. Even on Obama’s best day we did not experience this. So glad Mr. Trump is in the White House.

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We gave Obama eight years in the White House, now we should give him eight years in the big house.

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Politicians in the House of Representatives need to be working hard on pushing President Trump’s initiatives into law. As Tucker Carlson stated, the house will meet in April for a total of, get this, eight days. This may be an April Fools joke but I suggest President Trump start draining the Washington D.C. swamp by jawboning the House so that it acts and works harder. He also should throw all the nobama leftover rejects in important government positions out on their big behinds so as to stop future security leaks. Let’s get the country going again!

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It took the Republicans seven years to come up with this wonderful healthcare bill, millions of dollars for the rich. Could you throw in a free shovel for us little people so we can bury ourselves? 

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When the Democrats are in power they use brute force on their opponents and their own people to push new laws through, which increases their base and power. When they are out of power they use a scorched earth policy utilizing every dirty trick to obstruct hamstring and delay their opposition by using judicial lackeys. The Republicans appear to prefer sitting down to tea and crumpets. These Republicans better grow a set of big objectives and start playing hardball because this is their last chance to save the U.S. from Marxist progressivism and disintegration into the morass of liberalism. 

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Let’s give Putin credit. He’s a hell of a lot smarter than the president we’ve got and he knows it and he’s laughing at us. 

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A fitting name for this and any healthcare plan that the Republicans can throw together, the Humpty Dumpty Trumpcare. Don’t fall, don’t get sick, just pay. Have some popcorn and beer on that one.

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Mr. Trump is a misconstrued, misconceived, misunderstood, misspoken mistake that will lead the United States. I’m standing in the corner thinking about what I did. What’s wrong with me?

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So I stood in the corner thinking about why I voted for Trump. That was a great idea! I’m smiling more and larger than before.