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Opinion

County shouldn’t compound manager’s salary range COLA mistake

In Our Opinion

County shouldn’t compound manager’s salary range COLA mistakeCounty Executive PJ Wendel could have exercised a bit of fiscal conservatism on Saturday by vetoing a Local Law that creates mandatory cost-of-living-adjustments to the top and bottom salary ranges for management employees . Wendel chose not to do so - and it’s something we hope county residents remember moving forward. Let us be clear - we think management employees should be treated fairly. Those who deserve yearly raises should receive them. But management employees also know what the salary ranges for their ...

County provides possible progress decreasing homeless living in hotels

In Our Opinion

Adequately helping the county’s homeless population is a task that we’re sure feels immense for those who are working on it every day. It was encouraging, then, to hear Carmelo Hernandez, the county’s director of community mental hygiene services, say he would like to see at least one homeless or temporary shelter established by the end of the year. It’s a concrete step after hearing, for years, that the county needs to establish transitional housing programs to help the homeless. Such programs always seem a long way off in a human crisis that needs faster solutions. "I ...

Did you get your check yet?

Letters To The Editor

To The Reader’s Forum: As I write, there are about 35 days from Election Day, 2026 and the Republicans held a “convention” in Texas. Trump spoke and offered every adult citizen $5000 IF the Republicans continue to hold majorities in both the House and Senate in the 2026 elections. Not to spoil the party for Republicans, but there are a few reasons why the offer is unlikely. First, Trump has made at least 3 other offers of substantial payments to American adults that have fizzled over time. Second, it should be no secret that the offer will cost $1.3 trillion dollars and the ...

What have we become?

Letters To The Editor

To The Reader’s Forum: In my eighty-five years, I’ve seen a lot. I can’t believe what our country has become. We now live in a country with a disturbed wannabe dictator. He admires the Russian dictator. He orders an illegal sneak attack on another country, without permission of the Congress. We have become a country where protesters can be murdered by government thugs, without fear of legal punishment. They target innocent people because of the color of their skin. They pull people out of their cars and beat them up. They make people “disappear” into prisons, without allowing ...

Role models for young people need to be closely examined

Letters To The Editor

To The Reader’s Forum: I'm a proud graduate of Cornell University, and a member of a fraternity still active on campus. I lived in the fraternity house for three years while an undergraduate at Cornell. So I know first-hand what kind of culture can exist in both fraternity and sorority houses on college campuses. Much has been written and said the past several days about the alleged heinous gang rape of "Jane Doe" that took place at another fraternity house at Cornell in 2024. I'm as concerned, if not more concerned, than most because of my long association with this ...

A suggestion to honor the President’s legacy

Letters To The Editor

To The Reader’s Forum: I read with interest the letter to the editor on September 5th on a great way to honor the president's memory. I am in total agreement with the writer but I also have a way of honoring him. Go to a beach, work area, recreational facility and what do you see? The little grey buildings that come in very handy for visitors or workers. They are called Port-A-Johns. My thought is they should now be called Port-A-Dons in honor of our president. They could all have gold handles, as gold means nothing but great things to look forward to when entering. So either ...