Readers’ Column for the week of July 30, 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.

Shout out to Dave Woodburn for chipping in a birdie in the Tuesday night golf league. Such a rare occurrence surely cannot go unmentioned.

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My name is Joanne Johnson, and I’m a resident that JoAnn Walter’s quoted in the Owego Pennysaver. I just wanted to say thank you for the excellent write up she gave to the group Work Camp kids. They’re a wonderful group and I couldn’t be more blessed and I appreciate her work. I also appreciate everyone that came here including Senator Akshar, Newark Valley School folks and the Newark Valley Manor. I’m so grateful that everyone took such great notice. I will be sending the kids each a copy of that wonderful write up and the beautiful picture that JoAnn took. I just wanted to say thank you!

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A great big thank you to the power company for getting our electric back so quickly when it went out on Thursday in Nichols! Thank you!

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Could someone please phone in and tell me how I can get on Medicaid? I had to give up going to the dentist and the gym; I had to get money for the drug store and rides to and from the doctor. By the looks of the TV commercial, which I see continuously, it pays for hair, makeup and jewelry, along with a beautiful home! I’ve come to the conclusion that all one has to do is get up in the morning because everything else is handed to you. 

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This is for the person that had the problem with bats. You might want to check under your doors for a gap. I’ve seen bats when they get down on the ground, they hop like little hop toads and they can come right under a door. You might want to put some draft dodgers or something like that under your door. 

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I just read in this column that Mark Clark is having some competition this year for highway supervisor. That’s great news. If the new candidate needs some new signatures, tell him to come down to Maple Lane and Dutchtown Road, we’ll all sign his petition to get him on board. By the way, someone last week mentioned if we Trump supporters are still happy with our choice, and I am a Trump supporter and so is my wife, and we are so thrilled with our choice of Donald Trump and we will vote for him again so we will have eight years of him.

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Does anybody know anyone who fixes Sony receivers? If so, please respond to this column.

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I’d like to add to this week’s column on the highway superintendent. He used to do a good job when he was working for DOT, but he has no idea what to do with these roads that aren’t highways. Doing the ditches, doing the shoulders and all that kind of stuff. 

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I’ve been reading a lot in the local papers about the fiscal stress that Broome County is experiencing. I was wondering what the status of Tioga County is. I went to the state comptroller’s website to see if it was there and I was surprised to see that Tioga County has not submitted all of the paperwork from the State Comptroller’s office to make the proper analysis. I think this is very unfair to all of the residents of Tioga County. 

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This is in response to last week’s caller and to anybody else who is having problems with barking and unruly dogs in your neighborhood. You must call Kyle Fleming; he is the dog control officer for Tioga County and is available at 687-4039. If you don’t call him the problem will never go away but if you do call him, he will work with you and eradicate the problem. He is very good at what he does. We do have an ordinance in Tioga County that dogs cannot be out barking all hours of the day or night, and if they do the people will be fined the first time and the second time they will be fined harder and the third time the dogs will be taken away. Put up with the barking dogs or call Kyle Fleming. Good luck with your quest. 

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If you live in Tioga County and your road is in horrible shape and needs repaving and such and hasn’t been done in years, and you wonder where the blacktop is in Tioga County, well I’ll tell you, I’m glad you asked that question. Just go to Crestview Heights and drive up and down and look at the beautiful curbs, especially Pine Knoll has just been redone. It’s like driving on velvet. So if your road is in crappy shape and you want to know what it’s like to drive on a good road, hang a left right off of 17C and right onto Pine Knoll and check out the Crestview Heights area. That’s where Mark Clark has been doing all of his work, it seems. 

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I’m convinced some just do not understand the stock market. In response, I did not have to do stock market research. My quarterly statements tell the story and they are off the charts. If people did not see great returns these past two quarters they need to do some research. They may be in the wrong fund. Get yourself a reputable financial advisor. I’m now off to the bank for some of those earnings. 

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In response, I know in the wintertime scarves and mittens are attached to chain linked fences. They are there for the taking to anyone who may need them. I’m not sure but maybe this is the reason for the afghans. I know I complain about the scarves and mittens being distributed this way because with all the inclement weather in our area, who would want wet mittens? Why these donations are not taken to a food pantry or Salvation Army and distributed there, clean and dry, I’ll never understand. 

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We live at the bottom of a hill in the town of Owego. I can’t tell you how grateful I am that the highway department did not trench out ditches this year. They don’t seem to understand that removing grass and vegetation creates a situation where water flow accelerates and more erosion occurs. The natural vegetation controls the runoff and prevents washouts by holding the sand and gravel on the shoulder of the road in place. When overflow occurs, it’s more likely to be water and not a lot of debris. 

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Just reading the July 23 edition of the Owego Pennysaver and it seems to me somebody has bats in their belfry.

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All local merchants and restaurants! With the bridge out in Nichols when Watkins Glen runs on the weekend of Aug. 9, we should put out some banners and welcome them into our restaurants and stores and take advantage of the misfortune of the bridge being out. Remember that weekend for Watkins Glen; everybody is going to be coming through Owego from the east. Let’s make our town look proud!

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The Angels Over Afghanistan and Iraq are still accepting clean, sellable items for their annual yard sale. This year it will be Aug. 11 and 12 at the Owego Elk’s Lodge located at 223 Front St. in Owego. Items may be dropped off prior to that at 48 Talcott St. in Owego. Any questions, call Kelly at (607) 341-0532. Thank you for your continued support.

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The news had a story about a teacher panhandling for money for school supplies. As I recall in my school days my parents bought my supplies. What changed? Maybe Medicaid will start paying for supplies. It covers everything else!

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The Village of Owego has a rich history of shooting itself in the foot. From the apocryphal “Ezra Cornell wanted to build here”, to the xenophobic “no lunch pails on Front Street” through to an aborted attempt by the Village Board to buy the Wate Works, opportunities have been lost and tragedies championed. For 45 years and counting, the charms of the Village have caused many from within and without to predict that a cultural and economic renaissance would surely come. Just now, as younger investors are buying commercial property, the specialty shop guest books are full of notations from visitors far and wide, and the choice of restaurant experiences has never been better, the Village Board’s slash and burn fiscal and personnel policies are wreaking havoc with employee morale and physical plant upkeep. This too shall pass, it always has. But much damage can be done in the mean time. Perhaps the most egregious manifestation of the Board’s head in the sand stance is the systematic unwinding of the Village’s own Criminal Justice System. From the treatment of police management and officers, a part of the very public campaign to close the Department, to Tuesday’s vote to abolish the Police Justice position, the current Board seems hell bent to free the Village residents from local community policing and Justice. It is inevitable, given the vicious problems of drugs, poverty, poor housing and low employment that is the everyday life for a large portion of the Village residents, that a criminal tension will and has developed between the aforementioned economic revitalization and the sorry state of our most disadvantaged citizens. The crimes that have and will result from this tension are undoubtedly best handled locally, by devoted and savvy patrolmen, officers and Judiciary. A vote Tuesday to eliminate the Village Justice position is a vote backwards in time and a crime against the future. It is simply the first step in the unraveling of the fabric of a struggling community. Government is not a business. It is a service organization, and a sacred one at that. Citizens deserve to have responsible and responsive leaders, willing and able to guide into the future, not simply say, “Let the other guy do it.” This opinion comes not from some moist reserve of nostalgia, but from an open eyed appraisal of the situation. As always, our fate rests with ourselves, by an Old Hand.

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Why is MEGA incentivizing air and water contamination by reducing the price of an already low-price gas? They could instead incentivize renewable energy and help us more quickly make the transition?

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We don’t become energy independent by selling our gas to foreign countries. Renewable energy is here. It allows us breath clean air, drink clean water AND make own our own energy. Tell MEGA and your municipality that you want 100 percent renewable energy as your default electricity supply – not just as an ‘opt up.’

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Regarding Community Choice Aggregation or CCA, did you know that 14 of the 20 currently participating municipalities have set the 100 percent renewable energy supply option as their default option for residents and small businesses. Will the Town of Owego be the 15th municipality to go 100 percent renewable?

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The Newark Valley Class of 1952 will hold their 65th Reunion on Aug. 12. Please call (607) 687-4254 if interested. All are welcomed.

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So about this vote on abolishing the Village of Owego Court and sending it to the town. Will that cost be borne solely by town taxpayers and not passed back to the village? Couldn’t the town just increase the village portion of town taxes to cover the cost of taking over the village court? 

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OMG! The Owego village board thinks the departments are supposed to make a profit? They want to abolish the court because it doesn’t make a profit? They blame reduced revenue on a reduced police force – which they reduced? How much profit does the fire department make? How much profit is there in street maintenance? Let’s cut those too. What a crock!

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So the Owego village board wants to eliminate the village court. Why? So it will save money? Where does the court workload go? To the Town of Owego. So the Town of Owego has to pick up the cost. So shouldn’t the Town have to hold a referendum to see if their residents are willing to pay for the village court? Nice move. We’ll remember this.

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I was walking around the fairgrounds earlier this week, and ventured out into the softball fields, reminiscing about my younger days when I could play. It used to be a big deal back in the day! Rivalries, competition, and drinking with friends. People would come from all over; random people with no affiliation or investment to either team would stop and watch. I was absolutely horrified and deeply saddened at how bad of shape the fields are for the players I see out there every evening! Holes everywhere, poorly mowed and maintained in fields, no foul line for God’s sake! The village should be ashamed of itself for letting an attraction in the area become such a disgusting eyesore.

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FOUND at Riverow Bookshop in Owego: a Bluetooth and an unopened box of magnets. To retrieve, call 687-4094 with identifying details.

National Political Viewpoints

Cheers to Senator John McCain. We may not agree on our politics, but I do have a respect for you and the work that you do. Glioblastoma is horrible and my thoughts and prayers go out to you sir, and your family. I pray that you will be able to beat this. McCain is an American hero and a moral person. While running against Obama he discouraged mudslinging and ferocious tribalism that epitomized the last race. He is a man of good character and amazing strength. Fight strong Senator.

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What does it take to impeach this fool? The hole we are digging ourselves just keeps getting deeper and deeper. Somebody has to do something.

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I was wondering if anyone could give me some information about the promo Cuomo gave out, free community college. I see in all the commercials and it seems to be all young people. I’m a senior citizen, would it qualify me for pre-college also, or am I too old? If it is for senior citizens, maybe AARP could get involved and get us set up for training programs through the college. Please respond in this column.

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Those of you on the lower income level who think Obamacare is wonderful, for you it is. The working person is hit hard and has to cut back on expenses because Obamacare is eating up our income before we even pay our living costs. We are falling behind in this economy and desperately need relief. Many in congress don’t really care about our plight. To them it’s all about politics. When the people wake up and overload the switchboard in D.C. the politicians may get the message that their jobs are in jeopardy.

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Trump will not be impeached!

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Who watches Fox? Why it’s those who want fair and balanced news! There are also illiberal buffoons to balance the conservative wisdom at Fox. Why watch CNN or MSNBC with the fanatical left wing loons espousing marxist nonsense to their mind numbed sycophants who are consumed with Trump derangement syndrome. 

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Hey all you Trumpsters! Want to know why you’re dialing Donald won’t show you his income tax returns? Simple. He pays no income tax. Zero! Did you forget he got his fortune by going bankrupt umpteen times and paying off his debts on ten cents on the dollar, borrowing again somewhere else like Russia, cheating his contractors out of their due, milking the students who patronized his bogus college, and I repeat, not a dime of income tax for 18 years that we know of. So next time you get your paycheck and see the minimum 7 percent-plus of tax deducted for Social Security and Medicare, just remember your dear President has enjoyed a free ride to a fortune on your buck. 

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The public is interested in jobs, the economy and healthcare. The liberal media is interested in Russia, Russia and Russia. 

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Rush Limbaugh is on WNBF radio spinning his lies and talking like a lunatic. How can anybody listen to that guy? He needs to be booted off the radio. And by the way, he sits and defends Trump. How can anybody defend Trump? He is the biggest criminal.  

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It’s been enough that Donald Trump is our president, now the whole Trump family is trying to run the country. 

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On July 20, 2017, Teachers Union President Randi Weingarten stated, “The moment we’re in is the result of an intentional, decades-long campaign to protect the economic and political power of the few against the rights of the many. It has taken the form of division – expressing itself as racism, sexism, classism, xenophobia and homophobia. And its intentions are often disguised. For example, take the word ‘choice.’” This is not Fake News!

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For those so irrationally disturbed anti-Trumpers, recognize that he is the reaction of Middle America to attacks on its values and virtues by the intellectual and academic privileged. Celebrate the fact that Trump is neither a Democrat nor Republican. Tell Chucky Schumer to do something constructive rather than put his face into a camera daily and criticize everything. Don’t be useful idiots of the professional political class. They only hurt us.

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I would like someone to explain to me why there is such a furor over Hillary Clinton’s email. Like many prominent people, she had a private server in her private home,

which is totally legal. She sent some classified material via this server, which is not illegal so long as the recipient has the proper security clearance. She deleted her email, which is something we all do regularly. The FBI found that she had violated no laws. I did not support her candidacy, but I cannot understand the continuous controversy over this issue. What exactly do people believe she was hiding?