Readers’ Column for the week of July 25, 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.

 

To the idiot who trespassed on my property just moments ago to tell me that my dogs bark too much – well, you just broke the law! In fact, my dogs did not bark one tenth as much as they did to you ringing my doorbell, so the headache is on you. If my dogs barking at another dog passing by at 4:30 p.m. is so horrific to your daily life, then why do you find it important to mow your lawn at 9:30 p.m. when people are either trying to sleep or about to sleep? Besides, you’re not even really my neighbor! There are more dogs in the lawn that backs up to your house, or are within 100 feet that bark all day. My dogs are at daycare four days a week. Find something else to complain about. Oh, and FYI, my dog’s bark is an expression of freedom of speech as well.

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Not everything about our OACSD Board of Education should focus on its failure to act on behalf of students and taxpayers. In 2016 when the Monument to Mediocrity (new Owego Elementary School) was finished, by luck or conscious reasoning, the BOE got it right in hiring the new Superintendent, Mr. Green. He understood how and why OACSD academic performance and graduation rates were losers, and what could be done. In three years he, OACSD teachers, and staff, became overachievers in bringing academic performance in line with demographics. Teachers and staff wanted to top Vestal’s metrics, but then COVID came. Initially the swift improvement appeared as picking the low hanging fruit. Perhaps it started with picking the fruit off the ground. In 2016 OACSD had 161 teachers and in 2020 they had 130. This huge 20% reduction in teacher headcount should have saved taxpayers so much as to require reductions in property taxes. Unfortunately the teacher salary budget buster bomb was and remains hidden by this reduction. With so many of the highest paid teachers retiring, OACSD still has the highest teachers and staff. OACSD teachers are young relative to those of the Southern Tier, and therefore are even higher paid than raw numbers make it appear. Such a huge reduction in so little time should have been given attention in the Budget Newsletter since 2017. This is the year for the BOE to negotiate a new teacher’s union contract. There is absolutely no plan or intent to balance teacher union demands with those of students and taxpayers.

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Between 900 A.D. (A.D., or Anno Domini, is Latin for after the death of Christ) and circa 1200 A.D. there flourished an indigenous people in the American Southwest called the Anasazi. About 1200, a mega drought hit the Southwest and by 1300 the Anasazi were gone. In 1126 A.D., the newly appointed Archbishop of Lund arrived in Greenland. In 1378 all Norse had died or abandoned Greenland. The Southwestern United States is today said to be in a mega drought. Darn climate change can be a real bugger.

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I find it very incomprehensible for someone to make fun of anyone who has speech impairment, whether it is a president, a neighbor, or a student in school. This kind of behavior is called being a bully. Our schools are supposed to be bully free, and yet outside of the school it is still allowed to exist. Did you know that a person who has a speech problem must seek speech therapists that are specialized in speech issues? This therapy is very costly for the individual and some people cannot even afford it. I was one of the lucky ones who went once a week for my stuttering, even though I was told I needed three sessions a week. I learned to concentrate first on what I was going to say before I even said it. It takes a lot of time and practice. I still slip up now and then when I get really nervous. Please stop being the bully and think before you speak and treat others the way you would want to be treated.

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This is a reply to last week’s comment about the pothole situation and the poor response of Kevin Noble and his road crew. I don’t think this is a fair example of poor quality of workmanship from Kevin and crew. I drove on Honeypot a few times, and while there are a few potholes, a way better example of Kevin Noble and the crew’s poor quality is to drive a little further up Honeypot to Legg Hill Road. This road was re-surfaced about two and a half years ago, and now it has more potholes than it did before being re-surfaced.

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Does anyone know what, if anything, will be happening with the Tioga Center General Store? It’s falling to ruins. From what I understand about this unique building is that it was built around 1849 – 172 years ago. I believe it is listed in the National Register of Historic Places. It’s a wonderful piece of architecture from a long ago era. What a shame that it is falling apart. Is it privately owned?  If so, it would be a great addition for the Historical Society to purchase, if possible. Let’s embrace and preserve our history.

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Hi, I am one of those sheep who wears a mask. I would much rather be a sheep than a JACKASS who sits in his car and laughs at the intelligent people who wear masks to protect themselves from you and the other dunces who do not get their shots to halt this terrible disease.

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I’m glad to be an educated, fully vaccinated, mask wearing “sheep” rather than an ignorant, unvaccinated, unmasked Trump serf.

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I read, a while back, about someone in need of rides to doctor appointments. If you need anything, please give me a call (607) 242-7249 and I will take you anywhere you want. 

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All you people who write about the ignorance of people who didn’t get the vaccine need to realize there are a number of reasons people are reluctant to or just won’t get the vaccine. Number one, it is experimental. How many drugs that weren’t experimental and caused serious health complications have been removed from the market? How about Thalidomide? Number two – some people had COVID. Those people probably have better immunity than those of us who got the vaccine. Three, many young women want to have children. Do you want them to take a chance with their children’s health? Four, some women are nursing their babies. Do you want experimental drugs going into babies? Five, many young people don’t want it because their risk with this vaccine is probably worse than their risk of having COVID. Six, many people are chemical sensitive and just can’t risk a fatal reaction. Seven, many people have been completely turned off by the media. Eight, some people do their homework instead of listening to mainstream media. Nine, some people know Dr. Fauci’s reputation for being as wrong
as you can get when it comes to previous illnesses like Aides, H1N1, etc. And number ten, a lot of people know that most of the information we have been given, like wearing masks and social distancing has very little to do with science. Those things were guesses, not scientific facts. These are not the only reasons, just the ones that came to me in a few seconds.

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New York Education law requires, “… Categories of revenues, expenditures and fund balance information, as well as comparison data from the prior year’s budget must be set forth in such a manner as to best promote comprehension and readability. BOE must attach to the proposed budget the salaries, benefits and any in-kind or other form of compensation of the superintendent, assistant or associate superintendent and any administrator who will earn over $138,000 [which there are] in the upcoming year. BOE’s must also append to the proposed budget an annual report card prepared by the NYS Ed. D., which measures the academic performance of the district on a school-by-school basis. The report card must compare academic performance to statewide averages.” The May 2021 OACSD Budget Newsletter was absent of candor and omitted the significance, size, and impact of the 2021 COVID under run, reserves stuffing, and magnitude windfall State funding. The OACSD BOE annually provides less than the minimum information required by the State. Our Superintendent operates to the BOE policies, omissions of stewardship, and spirit of the BOE.

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The Newark Valley Trout Ponds Park looks beautiful this 150th year. The village workers are doing a great job of maintaining, the paved road is a great improvement, and the fitness trail is a nice addition. We appreciate our park.

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How can anybody get unemployment when they have to prove they look for jobs and say they can’t find one with a job of every kind and every skill on every corner? 

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In last week’s Owego Pennysaver I read where somebody commented about how dirty Marvin Park was. A friend of mine told me what happened a few weeks ago. There were a couple of teenage girls in the park and at one point they really needed to go to the bathroom. To their dismay, they went to the bathrooms and found that they were locked so they had to hurry over to Price Chopper for a bathroom. I think the way the park is, is a disgrace. 

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If anyone is looking for sewing machine repair, A to Z Vacuum in Main Street in Endwell does the service. 

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I want to thank the Owego Police Department dispatcher for giving me the phone number for the electric company when the power went out late Tuesday night into early Wednesday morning. I was left in the dark and got the number from him and was up most of the night and had seen one of the men fixing the problem. They were walking transformer to transformer to see which one it was. Thank you again for such a wonderful job and I thanked them when I saw them out there. You take good care of us; this is from Catlin Hill Road and all the areas.

National Political Viewpoints

I think it reprehensible to be celebrating a couple of juvenile billionaires wasting their money on what is essentially a kiddy ride for themselves and their equally immature friends. There are people all over this world who continue to suffer from diseases such as cancer; we are filling our earth with garbage; we still do not have an affordable, efficient, safe means of power; buildings are collapsing on people; we have no control over the weather; we are experiencing natural events such as wildfires, floods, and hurricanes. Shame on them.

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Why isn’t the fake news showing anyone about the upheaval in Cuba? Those poor people, the United States needs to help them and of course the Biden / Harris administration has other things to do like worrying about what flavor ice cream they are going to get when stopping at the ice cream store, or a bakery for a cookie. Another mess that Biden isn’t going to do anything about because he has compromised us with his financial family dealings. 

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Trump did fraud in his businesses and he did fraud in our government. Okay Trump, you are not going to be president this August like you said. Get over it already.

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Wow! Kevin McCarthy is down to Trump’s residence to kiss his butt and strategize the Republican 2022 elections. I would like to ask one of you Party of Trump scholars why McCarthy would do that. Trump is a loser, at that a sore loser. He lost, period. He is a criminal and is indicted. He lies and rips you sorry supporters off at every turn. Yet you all cling to him as if he was the Lord himself. I call on anyone with half a brain to vote to get all of these sick Trumpsters out of our politics. Get our government down to doing what it is supposed to do, work for all Americans. I notice that one of the insurrectionists got eight months. The poor guy would lose his job and start working in the community (probably to get a lesser sentence), making it sound as if he was repentant. I would rather see every single one of them see the death penalty for treason. God bless America.

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Can someone explain the logic at work here? Trump supporters praise his Operation Warp Speed for getting the COVID-19 vaccine ready in record time, and then protest loudly when others try to dispute it. Yet according to several studies, Trump supporters are the least likely to get the vaccine because they claim that it’s not a true vaccine, not proven, and ineffective.

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To the reader who claims Biden can’t put together a simple sentence – really? Where were you for the last four years? Did you ever listen to a Trump speech or any of his many painful press conferences? Talk about a vocabulary that would embarrass a fifth grader. I love you Trump supporters who like to project their failings on others; sad.

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I love it! Corey Lewandowski, Trump’s campaign manager who orchestrated Trump’s ride down the escalator in 2015 has just admitted all the people who were in attendance that day WERE PAID ACTORS! The Extra Mile, an actor placement firm that hires extras for movies, was engaged by the Trump people to provide actors that would wear Trump shirts and hold Trump signs to make you believe they were “real” supporters. Wow! Just like everything else about Trump, it was just an illusion. But what else would you expect from a TV conman? Sad part is millions of right wing gullible people fell for the scam that persists to this day. Some day, maybe, these misguided Trumpsters will see the light and see that they have been “gas lighted” all these years.

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