Readers’ Column for the week of Feb. 11, 2018

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.

For the person needing tax help. AARP counselors are available until mid April, free of charge in Tioga County, at the following locations (call for an appointment): Countryside Community Center, call 687-4120; Apalachin Library, call 625-3333; Waverly Library, call 565-9341; Newark Valley United Church of Christ, call 642-5520; and the Owego Library, the only location with evening help, call 687-3520.

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I have always enjoyed this column with comments from our community, and reading positive attitudes for good beginnings and neighbors helping each other, encouraging and friendly; but it seems the column for political national viewpoints have taken over too much space in this column. Come on, let’s be fair, we don’t need to read all the boo hoos of politics. Cheer up, be happy, smile!

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Someone called in about the AARP income tax preparation. It will be available at the Senior Center beginning on Jan. 30. Appointments are available on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Free of charge and primarily for adults over the age of 60. You can call 687-4120 for your appointment.

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I am very thankful for the food pantries that help people who don’t have enough food and I’m thankful for the food giveaways for the people that don’t have enough food. There was a person talking last week about people abusing it, and of course there is a difference between people who are really in need and people who are greedy and want to take anything they can get. There is a difference between the needy and the greedy.

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If you haven’t received your refund check from the state yet, the assessor’s office sent them out in bunches and you might not get it until some time in February. If you don’t get it in February, there is a number you can call to get your rebate.

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Great Super Bowl, when the New England Patriots don’t cheat they lose the game. Congratulations to the Philadelphia Eagles!

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A big shout out and thank you to the OFA Varsity Basketball Team for coming along Front Street and helping two elderly people move very heavy furniture to the curb before your game two weeks ago. We really appreciate it and we are proud of you. Thanks again.

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I live in Apalachin and I think that Tioga County ought to have a noise ordinance. There are people that are letting people in an apartment upstairs, and of course nobody works, and they are harassing a couple downstairs. They are being threatened to have to move because this couple makes so much noise they can’t sleep. They have to sleep in the living room and yet they are being threatened of being thrown out. It’s not fair.

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Last week there was a comment in this column about children smoking and wondering where the parents of the children are that are smoking. The answer is the parents are the people who are buying the cigarettes for the children who smoke. I know this; I’ve seen this so many times it makes me sick.

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Thank you to the Pennysaver for running the article on Nov. 5, 2017 about Governor Cuomo signing bill number S.1724/A.5135. The bill allows veterans a partial exemption under school taxes; however, it is discretionary and each board of education must approve for the exemption to apply to their school district. We thank Governor Cuomo for showing respect and appreciation for our veterans by signing this bill. It is a meaningful token earned by our veterans for their unequaled sacrifice for every one of us. Unfortunately, for the veterans the Owego and Union Endicott, school boards do not approve, stating that the exemption would not be fair to the other taxpayers. Veterans make up only one percent of our population. They never complained about fairness when it became their time to protect our country. 

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It is not right that someone would have to spend time and money putting something on their lawn to keep unwanted so called pets off of their property and from doing damage. I would call animal control. I would have the animal caught, let the owner pay for their release. Maybe then the owner would become a responsible pet owner.

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I know the village is cutting back on all budget items and trying to save some money, but some of their revenue comes from taxes from merchants in the downtown area. It would be nice if they would remove the snow banks after storms instead of leaving them and discouraging patrons from coming to their stores.

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On Monday at the Village Trustee’s meeting, I witnessed the Taxpayer Firsters auditioning for the role of Pontius Pilate in a new budget farce, washing their hands of their self-inflicted fiscal crisis, offering us the Barabbus of their dissolve-the-village-platform versus the apocalypse of unconstrained tax increases. Their script for a morality play, in which they have cast Taxpayer Firsters as heroes, is scripted by amateurish authors. With this letter I despair of their view of Village salvation since I remain an impenitent unbeliever in their budget harangue predicting the inevitability of the Owego fiscal apocalypse. Sound managerial principles, and realistic, rather than agenda-driven, fiscal projections are necessary for my conversion. 

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Just enjoyed reading the Community Press article about buying a TV back in the 1960’s at Lange’s in Owego. Article mentioned that you could now buy one bigger and better but at Walmart in Vestal. AGAIN, you have to go out of Tioga County to purchase anything with money you make in Tioga rather than keeping the money in our County. Such a shame. ON another note, I would like to say that the Perkins in Apalachin is the friendliest and cleanest restaurant. Happy they are in our area, both for us and for people traveling through our town.

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I want to tell people if they are looking for a great part time job with benefits, go online to Tioga Central School and apply for a bus driving job. I have been doing it for a while now and they trained me for no fee. I only work 15 hours a week and have great insurance and am working on a pension. Driving the bus isn’t that hard and I just love the kids on my route. There is a great need for dedicated drivers. Best decision I could have made.

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A poster said schools were closed and ALL the students were at the mall. That would mean there were tens if thousands of them at the mall. I didn’t miss the point but someone missed the humor.

National Political Viewpoints

I could not believe the self-serving, childish behavior of the Democrats at the State of the Union Address. It had only proven what I have known all along, and now they should not be surprised when a Democrat is not re-elected in November. Go Trump!

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The reader from last week that said the Republicans are the cause of the trillion-dollar debt, no they are not. It’s Obama! Anybody in their right mind knows he has spent more money than all 43 presidents ahead of him, combined! So don’t lay it on Republicans, it’s all the Democrats.

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Was Jeanine Pirro ever arrested for failure to appear at her court date or was she swept under the rug because she’s a Fox news supporter and a Republican, because the Republicans are all running the Owego justice department. I would just like to know; I think someone should report it because if this is swept under the rug, then this is just another example of the corruption.

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When you’ve got Trey Gowdy of South Carolina saying he’s not running for re-election, you know you’ve got some serious problems with this administration. He knows this administration is going down.

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Kaepernick took a knee to the American flag and because of Trump I really don’t blame Kaepernick. I, myself, would have laid down instead of kneeling because Trump should have gone in the service. Now he thinks he’s a big war hero. He watches the Fox station too much. He should be focusing on what is going on in this country. 

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There’s a new poll out listing the five top governors throughout the country, not one is a Democrat. Now why don’t you think that is a surprise!

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I am a 77-year-old man who has always voted Democrat and who had voted against Trump, but after I’ve seen what Trump has done for the American people I would have to be crazy not to vote for him come the next election. Any die hard Democrat that votes and likes a little more jingle in their pocket and paying lower taxes are just cutting off their noses to spite their face. Go Trump, you are the best!

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Trump should be disgraced about what’s going on in the country. He finally said something that wasn’t a lie. He’s the disgrace.

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I don’t understand why Tommy Reed or pretty boy Freddy Akshar can’t come up with a plan to fund the Owego sewer plant. 

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How can anybody deny that Donald Trump is sick and getting sicker? Now he wants a big parade like North Korea has at the tune of $8 million at the cost of the taxpayers. Let’s be serious!

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I don’t know how you Republicans live with yourselves, other than to acknowledge you are of very, very low intelligence.

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I thought that Trump promised that Mexico was going to pay for the wall. Why are U.S. taxpayers going to pay for a wall, billions of dollars? If all immigrants are criminals, why is Trump deporting immigrants who are taxpaying workers? Who is going to pay to deport 1 million immigrants, millions of dollars? What about losing the tax dollars, millions of dollars? Why doesn’t Trump use the $25 billion for the wall to prevent school shootings and domestic terrorism by white males?

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I am still hearing about the petty Trump inauguration crowd size issue. They say Trump lied by saying his inauguration crowd was the largest ever. They say it is okay to have alternate opinions, but not alternate facts. Well, as I remember it, Trump did have alternate facts. He said that the D.C. park service said the bus volume to the inauguration was the highest ever, not pictures, bus service! If you have other facts, that support you, it is not a lie!

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I wonder why Donald Trump doesn’t wear a wedding ring?

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Well, now we have to watch and hear the spoiled, narcissistic brats in both Houses of Congress yap about their memos. “My memo is bigger than yours,” etc. Kids in a sandbox. Here’s an idea, how about we get over ourselves, forget about the “gotcha” politics and get on with the business of THE PEOPLE, which is what you are employed to accomplish! 

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The ISIS territory re-captured was in Iraq and Syria, not Afghanistan. The Taliban are the extremists in Afghanistan. ISIS, as an organization and an ideology, has not been defeated. But hey, believe what you wish.

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Ya gotta laugh at the Dems sitting through a rousing State of the Union address with the dumb, blank looks on their faces. Then there was Nancy Pelosi who seemed to spend time adjusting her dentures, or something weird with her mouth; Chuck Schumer in a daze; Bernie Sanders in LaLa land as usual; and then there was a rebuttal from Maxine Waters. What a hoot! They just can’t stand the idea that President Donald Trump is succeeding, the PEOPLE of this country are wildly in favor of his agenda, and their flawed candidate, crooked Hillary lost!  

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The President and Republican Congress must be desperate in order to decapitate the FBI and wreck the Intelligence Agency staffed with Administration appointed and Congressional vetted Republicans. Mueller must have some very damaging information (money laundering? obstruction?) on Trump in order for him to create chaos in our government and the stock market. This is just what Putin ordered!

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One of the Regulations that the Trump Administration overturned was the Regulation that required employers to keep accurate records of workplace injuries and illnesses.

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Mr. Trump claims to be innocent, but won’t be completely transparent. People who have nothing to hide, hide nothing. Such a sorry state of affairs and embarrassment to our country. Shame on you, Mr. President.

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Not being a football fan, I spent Sunday reading the “blockbuster”, Nunes memo. For all of its hype, it neither exonerates nor indicts the President. I do not see where the fact that a Democrat campaign worker alerted the FBI about a certain person who was then put under surveillance is relevant. Being an early Trump supporter, I could never understand why he has been so desperate to stop the Mueller investigation. I still do not think that he personally did anything wrong, but I suspect that his “less-than-smart” family members may have. His attempt to protect them may have caused him to cross the line. The Mueller investigation must be allowed to work its way through to whatever conclusion it reaches.

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Mr. Trump will need a shoulder replacement soon, all the pats on the back he gives himself.

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