Readers’ Column for the week of May 16, 2021

You may call the Owego Pennysaver Readers’ Column at (607) 687-2378 24-hours a day, or email comments to readerscolumn@stny.rr.com. We reserve the right to revise or reject any message.

 

With many people working from home, how is private information such as banking records kept private?  

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Got my Village of Newark Valley Newsletter. I am a huge fan of this column. Sometimes it’s the only way to get a point across to the Mayor and Board members, and maybe get a result. Please don’t blame 104.5-feet of snow on our problem with blight! It’s been with us for a long time! What I would like to read (in the newsletter) and to be made aware of is, what is going on with property where Ladder factory was? When can we get it back on the tax rolls? When is the bridge going to be fixed on Whig Street? When are we going to make the village barn a little better in appearance? What’s going on with abandoned homes? If we should receive any stimulus money, what will it be used for? These are just a few questions. 

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Did you know, the Bible is the most read book in the world? Have you read it?

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Just got my Newark Valley newsletter. Lets not use the excessive snowfall for an excuse on our blight, our vacant houses and junk cars, and over all code enforcement. They have been with us long before it snowed. It’s our lackadaisical approach to a problem.

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How dare the Mayor of Newark Valley call out the people’s comments in this column. Dear Mayor, if you actually listened to people at the meetings you hold monthly, and allowed people to talk, then they wouldn’t have to speak out in this column. The very people you are disrespecting fund the newsletter. So use it for taxpayer reasons, not an expression of your feelings. The meetings go all night, but nothing is ever accomplished, and the people go home without you listening to what they have to say.

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Congratulations and a big thank you goes to Charlie Meade, who retires at the end of this year as Newark Valley Highway Superintendent. We thank you for your 36 years of service. Running this year for the position is a Newark Valley Highway Department employee, Stephen Joe Tennant, with 12 years of experience in Newark Valley and eight years with the Town of Union. We on Bailey Hollow Road support Mr. Tennant for the Superintendent’s position. 

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In the Village of Newark Valley newsletter, I see where fire safety inspections will be taking place soon. How about the houses that have been vacant for years, if not decades? Can they be inspected and an X put on them, to keep the fire department and public safe?

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We still (for now) enjoy some freedoms in this country. If you don’t like the Readers’ Column, simply don’t read it! Personally I find it is the first place I turn to, as the often-amusing (in their inaneness) comments (such as yours) brighten my day. Of course, I flatter myself to think I have sufficient intelligence to know what to not take seriously and recognize misinformation. The column is not reporting; I repeat, not factual reporting. Hello! Some of the comments are of value, such as folks thanking perfect strangers for being honest and turning in lost wallets, etc., so we know there’s still goodness in the world. Lighten up!

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Those of you insisting Florida and Texas aren’t getting new COVID cases will be surprised if you actually look it up.

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From the DEC commissioner about finding baby animals in the wild that look abandoned. “At this time of year, New Yorkers may encounter young or newborn wild animals in their yards and mistakenly think they need help to survive,” Commissioner Seggos said. “While a baby rabbit or a recently fledged bird might appear abandoned, a parent is likely nearby, trying to remain out of view. (This also includes baby deer.) Please do not touch a wild baby animal; instead, enjoy encounters with wildlife from a distance. Remember-if you care, leave it there.”

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Does it really cost approximately $25,000 to educate a student in the Owego Apalachin School District? I think that voters should start questioning how and what the school district is spending money on. Let’s make the District listen to parents and taxpayers by making your voice count when you vote. They are here because we have children, not the other way around.

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In response to, “I just had some stranger lecture me on COVID,” you should have thanked her. “Who’s to say she’s right and my views are wrong?” Medical science. “I told her to mind her own business and worry about herself,” and she is. She’s also worrying about her family, friends, neighbors, community, state, country and the whole world, which includes you. Get your shot, wear your mask and try to stay 6-feet apart until this pandemic is minimized to possible herd immunity. Thousands of our fellow citizens are dying every day. Do your small, easy part to save lives. One could be your own.

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They may talk about public service, but what is public service? For you farmers out there that have cattle and stuff like that, what does service mean on the farm? Tell me what service really means. 

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I have a question for the readers out there. I would like to know if you are going to be having the music sessions on Friday night at the Railroad Depot in Newark Valley. Please answer in this column.

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I would like to commend The Pennysaver and our delivery person here in Berkshire for having our paper here every week on Saturday afternoon or Sunday. They are very efficient. I firmly believe printed news is very important, and if we lose that we’re losing a lot. Thank you to The Pennysaver.

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To the people that wrote in about animal abuse, I would like to suggest you call animal control instead of writing to The Pennysaver. Someone has to speak for these poor animals.

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This is to the person on Route 38B who hears the humming noise. I live on East Main Street in Owego and for years have heard the same humming noise. I thought it was in my head until I asked my friend one night and he also heard it. I believe it’s something our government is doing. 

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This is Peggy Aires. Last Wednesday, I don’t know what happened, my wallet was lost or stolen. It’s got my driver’s license and credit cards and all that in it. If anybody has found it, please return it to me. My telephone number is 625-4048.

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It is correct; I do not believe COVID exists. Where is the proof? People die every minute of every day. The only difference now is that our country labels their death as COVID. People need to get real. You need to live in faith and not fear. Stop watching the fake news and stop listening to a journalist’s opinion. Well, I’ve got to go because I’m busy. I’m not being cooped up and afraid to live my life.

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I just read that slow Joe is giving billions of dollars to New York State for water, sewer and broadband Internet projects. I’ll bet you that your sewer bill in Owego will go up. With these people running this village I will guarantee it will not go down, and I will bet it will go up.

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This is a special thank you to Nancy Demoiski and for allowing visitors to come up to their home to see all the wonderful daffodils. This is one special family. For all the hard work that has gone into what they have done, they can be proud of what Joy Demoiski started and yes, Joy can see what has been done. Also, a big thank you goes out to all the fine folks that worked so hard to put together the daffodil festival this year again. Thank you all for a job well done!

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I don’t know why they are jumping ahead and not having the Strawberry Festival. I think that is something everybody looks forward to. Everything else is open, sports are open and I think we need to go home with some of these things that everybody looks forward to, and I think it’s very sad that they made a decision not to go with the Strawberry Festival. I think they should reconsider this whole thing. 

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Does anyone know of a gentleman gardener that might do occasional work in the Lounsberry area? Please leave a message at 240-1678.

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To everyone that has worked to get us through this very hard time; food service, medical providers, care providers, delivery people, everybody that worked so hard to keep us going. Thank you so much! You’re such a blessing to all of us. May you stay strong and healthy and have a wonderful rest of your life.

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This is for the individual in Nichols that is worried about the garbage on my porch. It’s on my back porch and it so happens to be bottles and cans. So why don’t you mind your own business and clean up your own yard and leave me alone. 

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In many localities there used to be a phone number that you could call in order to get the correct time and temperature, and also a phone number you could call to get the correct weather forecast. I’ve noticed that these phone numbers are no longer available. If they could be reinstated it would be a great help to those of us who don’t have internet access, especially after a power outage or during spring and fall when temperatures change dramatically. I’ve also noticed that many businesses, especially banks, used to display the time and temperature on their marquees. This no longer takes place either.

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The grass sections along the Riverwalk are getting pretty tall. I thought property owners on Riverow are responsible for mowing this, and they should do it before the grass gets more than 3-feet high. 

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My concern is about the caller, calling in about the dog that was left outdoors, tied to a cinder block, barely able to move, left to whine and cry. This is a very sad situation and something needs to be done before something happens to this dog. The caller did not identify the location of this dog. If this person does not know whom to call, I’m sure if they call the sheriff’s department they will be able to give you the number of who to contact to look into this matter. Hopefully the caller will read this and give a location of where this dog is located so others may call.

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I called the code enforcement officer in Nichols to get on the ball and start taking care of things. There are an awful lot of things in this little town; I can’t imagine what they do in Owego and Waverly, towns that are bigger than Nichols. We need somebody here to do something. The control officer could do at least a little bit of something to help us here in Nichols?

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I received my O/A news budget yesterday and I see they are not asking for any additional money from the taxpayers. I think our administrators should be applauded for what they’ve done. This past year has been the most trying year they’ve probably ever faced and they had teachers doing more than they have ever done before. They had teachers delivering food and supplies to children, and they still asked for no increase in taxes. I think it’s wonderful! On the other hand, I saw further in that both libraries were coming back and asking for more money. They were closed for months, and when they did reopen, it was with limited services and they gave us less last year than they’ve ever given us and they want more money. Don’t they know that people lost their jobs, some people had to quit and take care of children just to survive? People have less money and they’re asking for more money to give us less service? 

 

National Political Viewpoints

A post from last week in this column has suggested that this forum be eliminated because of all the garbage, falsehoods and misleading facts that it contains. There is certainly a lot of junk and stupidity evidenced in this particular outlet, but I think that this provides a valuable albeit flawed outlet for public opinion. I use it myself quite frequently. I often quote articles and provide the source; maybe the source is incorrect but people at least know where this information originated. I’m a strong supporter of the First Amendment and this particular viewpoint, “I don’t agree with what you say but I will defend to the death your right to say it.” This quote has been attributed to Voltaire but came from the pen of Evelyn Beatrice Hall, who was summarizing Voltaire’s philosophy. [I love having the Internet for tracking down this kind of stuff.] This column is a good gauge for local public opinion and values. If you are someone who believes in Jewish space lasers and that Venezuelans transferred voting data to Germany where Trump votes became Biden votes, I feel sorry for you, but it’s good to know that you might be standing behind me in one of the local grocery stores. 

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I’m so happy to read all the letters every week supporting our great president, Joe Biden. It also does the heart good to read the comments about that moron who used to occupy the White House. So please keep the letters coming. God bless president Biden!

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To the person who still thinks Trump had anything to do with the development of the vaccines; again, the FDA cut out the waiting period for all new COVID-19 vaccines. They are not “Trump Vaccines.” He couldn’t even spell the word vaccine. You should go back to Mars.

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In 1965, Paul Harvey, on his radio show, performed “If I were the Devil”. I encourage readers to listen to this or look up and read the lyrics.

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After being a registered Republican for over 60 years, and who first voted for Barry Goldwater, I have decided to leave the party. I cannot support a party who throws out a Conservative Representative, Liz Cheney, in favor of a person who took out an ad to convict innocent young men in New York City. Who found a doctor to find heel spurs to avoid the draft, who took several companies into bankruptcy, ran a scam university, bragged about grabbing women, denigrated war heroes and gold star mothers, who paid off a porn star to keep her quiet, who was twice impeached for improper conduct, who asked you to ingest bleach to combat COVID, who said Mexico would pay for the wall, who stiffed workers on his Trump Towers and charts his own hurricanes, who incited a riot against the government and who is a pathological liar. It’s time for me to leave.

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Really? We are now criticizing folks for jewelry choices? Will we now be pushing for crosses or other religious necklace wearing persons to be thrown in jail? If you want to remark on hypocrisy, please remember “Catholic” Nancy, Joe and Andrew who think abortion is a perfectly acceptable form of murder.

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It was totally predictable that the Democrats would legalize political corruption as soon as they could. They brought back the “earmark” pork barrel spending that the Republicans had eliminated.

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It appears to me that the people who are crediting Trump for the vaccine are the same ones that are refusing to get vaccinated. Trump got us the vaccine for a hoax disease. Logic isn’t their strong suit.

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The Trump Department of Justice under Barr had ample opportunity to investigate Hunter Biden. They had the laptop that was claimed to be his. They would have given their first born to prove something. They failed. Why? There was nothing there. Deal with it.

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I have been a lifelong resident of this county for 65 years. Never in my life have I seen such lies being broadcast and published week after week in this Pennysaver. You people ought to be ashamed of yourselves. You’re promoting the destruction of this country. What is wrong with you people? Trump is nothing more than a criminal and you people know it yet your politics has overruled your common sense. Do the right thing. Open you mind up at least.

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You’ve got to be a really stupid person to believe the election was stolen. Our Department of Homeland Security under Trump’s administration said the election was fair, safe, and secure. William Barr, Trump’s only Attorney General said the election was fair and square. So I don’t understand how you guys are so easily duped. Snap out of it. 

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We desperately need some public-spirited people that can analyze the legislation passed by federal, local or state agencies to see what really is in that body. Some of the federal bills are 400 pages long. Somebody should be reviewing those things. We are responsible for it and we’re paying for it, but what are we getting for it? 

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The red republican states are open for business with a booming economy. Now let’s get evidence that you have been looking for work in order to get those unemployment benefits. Capitalism at its best and Capitalism at work. Now the blue democratic states are closed with an economy in the tank. Unemployment is sky high. This is failed socialism in the democratic states, but that just reinforces the democratic stupidity that we all have to struggle with. Socialism does not work; it’s been proven over and over, which is very evident in New York State.

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So, along comes Joe, the big unifier, the president that’s going to follow the science. He’s nothing more than a Pinocchio if you ask me. 

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By the way you hateful liberals, the republicans are trying to pass laws in their states to make it easier to vote but harder to cheat. Get it? Easier to vote and harder to cheat, like you did in the last election. There’s a difference in the lies that you are trying to spread.

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I’m sick and tired of hearing about the lies and about Trump on Jan. 6. Watch the videos, he did nothing wrong and said nothing wrong, period. 

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My opinion is that Tucker Carlson on Fox News is nothing but a parasite. It’s not good for people and he spreads poison and evil conspiracies every day. He frowns to look really, really serious. What an act that is! And People believe him; they must love evil conspiracies. 

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So, because of Biden’s border crisis the U.S. has spent $3 billion in the first two months of this year. Nancy Pelosi wouldn’t give Trump $5 billion for the border wall. It doesn’t make sense to me. What do you say, liberals? 

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I’m with you 100% Liz Chaney. Tell the republicans the truth. Whether they can handle it or not, they need to hear the truth. God bless you girl. Save our democracy, save our country. You are not wrapped up as a republican and democrat, you are an American and I love you for it. I don’t care if you are a politician, I love you. 

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I love the new billboards that are going up in Maryland. In big letters it says, do not blame Trump; blame these two – with a picture of Biden and Harris. Like I said before and I’ll say it again, they are in over their heads. They have no clue to what they are doing other than ruining this country. Here’s to 2022, hopefully it gets here quickly.

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Newsflash! Happy days are here again! According to team Biden, gasoline will soon reach $3.50 per gallon. But don’t blame Biden for cancelling the Keystone Pipeline. Inflation has jumped to over 4%. Biden just gave $250 million to the Palestinians who purchased missiles to lob into Israel, our ally. The Mexican border is a nonstop illegal alien welcome center. The biggest such disaster was about 250,000 illegal’s a month crossing the border. So how do you guys feel about putting him in charge of the U.S. economy and safety? Good grief! Help us all!