Readers’ Column for the week of July 6, 2025

You may call The Owego Pennysaver Readers’ Column at (607) 687-2434, extension 2, 24-hours a day, or email comments to ReadersOP@gmail.com. We reserve the right to revise or reject any messages. To allow more callers to be heard, please limit your comments to 100 words or fewer. We will not be running comments that exceed this number, give or take five words.

 

I’m desperately in need of a box spring or a full-size bed. My number is (607) 972-7752. Thank you for any help with this!

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I am wondering who is in charge of mowing the Lounsbury Cemetery. It hasn’t been mowed this year. Thank you.

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I am so happy that Mark Clark won the primary! Maybe now we can get the potholes on Hilton Road fixed.

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The new Tractor Supply is already under construction. Additionally, I don’t think the old Grand Union meets its requirements (they tend to occasionally display large merchandise/ equipment outside). What we need is a Weis grocery store, in my humble opinion.

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I agree with a caller who complained about locals not returning calls or showing up when they said they would. We have the same problem with most contractors. It is frustrating. We too, want to give the small business owner our business, but we have been forced to use the bigger companies or do it ourselves in recent years. This problem has become more of an issue; it’s not a good way to conduct business. Don’t say you will be there if you don’t plan to come, or return phone calls if you don’t want business. It is that simple.

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It’s a shame that people can’t put things out to take with them when they’re going to be moving. A friend of mine just put something out by her house that was going to be picked up by a truck, and it has been stolen. I was a baker’s rack. I think it’s a rotten shame people do things like that. They hadn’t even completely moved out yet. I hope those people really read this message, but they should be ashamed.

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I’m just calling to say thank you to the Tioga County Highway Department for the lovely new yellow lines on Glenmary Drive. It really helps when it starts to get foggy again. Thanks guys.

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What’s next for that area goal to 91 yard line? From ads in the Pennysaver: $5,000 to $10,000. Add solar panels with a potential value of $500,000. That may induce 30% tax credit from New York State at a value of $150,000. What is the value now? How much? To whom? As profit or expense? To whom? Potential results. You may wish to check the following on the internet: Making Sense of Energy Units, A Guide to the NY Sun Program; the end lists seven incentives. What does this information do to your understanding and outlook? 

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Blair catalog had a sale, but you could not return the items for refunds. I ordered three items. Those items arrived, and they were all sized 2X, which I don’t wear. I called Blair, and of course, there was nothing that could be done. Did anybody else get taken by Blair? It was about $58 worth of stuff.

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For those who like to play chess, Owego’s Coburn Free Library offers the time, location, and materials. The chess club meets on the second Thursday of each month, from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. in the library’s Eva Thomas Room, located on the second floor. Boards and pieces are provided. All playing levels are welcome, from absolute beginner to world champion. Games are played, ideas are shared, and chess history is discussed. The next meeting is on July 10. This information is also available on the library’s web page.

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I want to thank the reader who is letting us know how out of control spending is by the village government. An awning for the village office entry? Why on earth is one needed? It can’t be to protect one from the weather. Open the door, walk in, and be dry. It must be for vanity purposes. A lot of us in the village live on a Social Security check. But our officials don’t seem to care.

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How could the Town of Newark Valley not update a property assessment since 1985? In 1985 there was a mobile home on a property, but since then, it has been replaced with a large modular home, a two-car garage added, and some sheds. The property taxes were assessed for the mobile home, and the owners got away with paying less tax for all those years. Wouldn’t you like to pay less tax? How could this have gone unnoticed for so long? Someone wasn’t doing their job correctly.

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I’m looking for a gentleman who came into Metros for dinner on June 8. You left something behind where you were sitting. I’ve been waiting for you to come back in to give it to you, but I haven’t seen you since. If you think this is you, please respond here with your number or a way to get ahold of you. 

 

National Political Viewpoints

Trump can speak all he wants, but he should watch the language that he uses. 

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Why does our president, Donald Trump, continue to lie to the American people and insist that his appointees do the same follow-up lying? It would be much better if he were not so egotistical and wanting approval and was just straight with the American people on all subjects.

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Trump’s big, beautiful bill is the largest transfer of wealth from the poor and middle class to the wealthiest Americans and large corporations. Is this what you voted for?  

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To comment on the American flag, I have my flag out year-round with a light under it. The comment to the gentleman about the parade: It wasn’t about the president; it was about Americans, and the whole King thing was just stupid. People just want a reason to go out and protest and yell and complain at people. How about starting to be a little kinder and start helping people instead of putting them down? I don’t know. I don’t understand the world anymore. God help us.

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I don’t know where these MAGA people are coming from. They’re saying that they think all violent people, if they’re not citizens, should be locked up. Yeah, I agree; if they’re not citizens, they should be locked up. That’s why we locked up over 1,500 after the Jan. 6 insurrection, and they beat the cops and tasered them. The problem was your king, Mr. Trump, he pardoned all of them because they were his buddies, and he’s just as bad as they are. The whole bunch should be in jail, including Trump!

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You people with Trump derangement syndrome are something else! You attack us for having our Trump flags and banners out, and you’re saying all those terrible things, yet you’re guilty of the same thing that you attack us for. We had to deal with Biden for the past four years. He didn’t know what he was doing. He was really a puppet. You’re still mad because Harris did not win.

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I’m making a comment in regard to somebody saying something about the protest in the park: can you clean up your trash and that the place was left a wreck? I have been at every protest at the courthouse this year in regard to the current administration. We protest peacefully, we protest quietly and respectfully, and we also clean up our mess; we have never trashed the place. So I would appreciate it if people didn’t say that. Thank you.

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When I opened the paper today, what I saw was enough to sicken me. Jeff Bezos in Italy, the cost of everything, the jewels they were wearing, and the next picture: a mother carrying her dying child in Sudan, looking for some food or water. And that could be in Gaza; the children are starving to death. How these people can party is more than I’ll know. And why is anyone interested in anything they do, anyway? Thank you.

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I understand from the local media and comments about the No Kings rally that people were bused in and were not from this area. Really? Come join the rally and see who’s here. It’s your friends, neighbors, and church fellow-goers who are just sick about the Constitution being pummeled. In fact, you should read the Constitution. I would take some time and sit down and read it. Maybe it could be a sermon, but I need our local news, our local media, to at least be truthful and to check the facts before they put them out. Thank you.

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A little heads-up: Who do you think is going to pay for putting all these people in these foreign prisons? I’ll tell you who: the taxpayer. Do you realize how many billions on top of billions of dollars it’s going to cost these other countries? These countries aren’t putting these people in prison for free. We’re paying, and we’re paying dearly for it, but they don’t tell you that. Anyway, buckle up because you are going to be paying out the butt!

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It’s just hard to believe I am watching the self-destruction of the Democratic Party. They allow 20 million illegal aliens to enter the country and now fight to keep them, including criminals, here. Instead of working with the Republicans on the current bill, they do everything to stop its passage. Never mind that failing to do anything means the biggest tax increase in the history of the country. The Democrats choose to fight for the minority views. I guess these politicians think you Democratic voters are fools. Being called a MAGA voter looks really good right now.

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“According to immigration scholar Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, the measure also provides an additional $45 billion for Immigration and Customs Enforcement to detain migrants, on top of the current annual budget of $3.4 billion. It adds $14.4 billion for transportation and removal on top of the current annual budget of $750 million. It also adds $8 billion for new ICE hires and retention. Reichlin-Melnick notes that this budget will give ICE more money for detention than it gives the entire U.S. Bureau of Prisons.” Heather Cox Richardson. June 28, 2025

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“How can we continue to betray people’s longing for peace with false propaganda about weapons buildup, in the vain illusion that supremacy resolves problems instead of fueling hatred and revenge? People are becoming more aware of the amount of money that ends up in the pockets of merchants of death. With that money, hospitals and schools could be built. Instead, those already built are being destroyed.” Pope Leo XIV. June 26, 2025

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I’ve seen a few flags showing Lady Liberty with her hands over her face. I can only believe that she is showing sorrow and shame over what the Democrats and mainstream media have done over the last four years under Biden to destroy the U.S., lying to us all through those Biden years.

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“For many of the people who have made the uncommon choice to stay in an impractical city rendered almost unlivable by tourism in the easyJet age, the event was a climax of the city’s betrayal, an American-sized display of its contradictions. It was the capitulation of Venice’s identity, they said, reduced to a glittery backdrop for the family photos of the world’s new oligarchy.” Emma Bubola, New York Times, referring to the recent wedding of Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sanchez in Venice.

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Trump could save a drowning child from the ocean, and the Democrats would accuse him of starving sharks. — Mama Gump