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Letters To The Editor

Rail Group Ready To Step Into Airport’s Void

To The Reader’s Forum: The Empire State Passengers Association is in agreement with the Editor’s corner “County’s airport dreams discount reality,” (April 28) noting the lost opportunities from Chautauqua County spending $1 million annually on two small airports. While opinions may differ on what public use to reallocate the funds to, our statewide passenger rail advocacy organization supports additional passenger train frequencies in the Lakeshore corridor along with a future passenger stop in Chautauqua County. Our association is working with a variety of groups in the ...

Applauding The Efforts Of The Region’s Teachers

To The Reader’s Forum: Teacher Appreciation Week is Monday to May 12. Let us look at education from the teacher/student view. Education comes in many forms. It can be from a parent, sibling, friend, anyone. The learning can come by example, instruction, or quite by accident. We love to see the smile on our students’ faces as they accomplish skills. We see their skills improve by hands-on learning, practice, encouragement and increasing confidence. A look from the cafeteria adult, bus driver, secretary, assistant, custodian, and even another student can be a very positive ...

Utility Scale Solar Kills Jobs

To The Reader’s Forum: Does it matter that utility scale solar has a negative effect on the environment - destroying farmland, forests, wetland, recreational land? Does it matter that property values are driven down? Does it matter that the mining of cobalt, lithium, rare earths and copper to build solar panels and battery energy storage systems is done by slave labor in the Congo and China? (Wall Street Journal, “Cobalt Red: How the Blood of the Congo Powers Our Lives” which documents the degradation of men, women, and children who mine solar materials). “The scale of ...

Some Proposals For Gun Control

To The Reader’s Forum: Control is a complicated word in our political discourse. Especially when we were founded on the principle of freedom from tyranny and taxes without representation. Why do we want to control issues related to transgender people and gay weddings? Or control wokeness by banning books in schools and women’s reproductive abilities but not guns? Why is control so important for some issues but not others? When did controlling how people think and behave become more important than telling the truth? The Ten Commandments don’t tell us how to think, they just ...

Volunteer Firefighters Should Get Tax Breaks

To The Reader’s Forum: On April 10, we attended a Town of Ellicott board meeting. We were specifically concerned about a proposal calling for the elimination of a town justice position. Although we did not speak at the meeting, we are against the proposed elimination. Many people attended the meeting and many people spoke against cutting a justice position. All speakers voiced interesting and well thought opinions. All were very orderly. The opinions were all in opposition to the town board’s decision to cut a town justice position and we\\\’re quite sure the town board ...

New York Is Tax Hell

To The Reader’s Forum: I can’t think of any other state that is more beautiful than New York State. You can do just about anything you want here in terms of recreation. The four seasons allow us to enjoy the beauty of our state and provide us with just about every opportunity to do so. However, can you afford to live here? New York State is ranked number one for overall tax burden and for individual income tax burden. Businesses are leaving in record numbers as a result. No wonder the state is labeled tax hell. What a shame. Why would anyone want to relocate here. Census ...