LETTER from SCOTT DUNCAN To Preserve Our Earth, Live By Nature’s Rules To the Editor: So the fracking industry comes into town and uses a lot of clean water that then becomes unusable, tears up and down the roads with trucks, and drills for the gas. Then pipes it out of the county and sells it to? … and this will benefit the poor people, how? Poor people don’t always own the land. Mike Zagata’s description of fracking left out…
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Opinion - Page 265
LETTER from BOB EKLUND Praise For Fracking? Let’s Call In Fossil-Fuel Fiction To the Editor: Normally, I would not respond to such pithy paeans of praise to the poison profits of pipelines as recently described by Mr. Zagata (Nov. 28-29) in this space. However, since my name and likeness, along with friend and fellow environmental activist Nicole Dillingham, were used as poster people for the piece, I feel I must. First I must admit surprise at Zagata’s entry into fossil-fuel…
LETTER from GARY KOUTNIK County Board Has Honest Folks Trying To Do Best To the Editor: I’ve been paying attention to politics and governance since the Eisenhower administration. It’s always been an important part of my life, from dinners as a boy listening to the news on the radio, and talking about it with my family, all the way to today, listening to and reading about the current Congressional hearings, and talking about them with my wife. So in 2011,…
VIEW FROM WEST DAVENPORT Save Eagles From Environmentalism In 1969, our country moved from demonstrating against the Vietnam War to marching for environmental protection. That year, Congress passed the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), which required federal agencies to do an Environmental Assessment (EA) and/or an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) prior to granting a permit allowing a “project” to go forward. If it was determined the project wouldn’t cause any “significant” environmental impact, a Negative Declaration (Neg Dec) could be…
VIEW FROM ALBANY Art Lawless Rewarded And Lives Endangered? At this time of year, I normally review positive policies and new laws that have been adopted in Albany. Unfortunately, there was more bad news than good coming from the state Capitol during 2019. One item that will benefit homeowners is a permanent 2-percent property tax cap. I have long supported this tax relief measure and have helped pass Senate legislation on a number of previous occasions to guarantee this savings…
2ND EDITORIAL The New Decade Will Bring Pretty Much What We Expect County Rep. Meg Kennedy, in her interview on being named this newspaper’s Citizen of the Year for 2019, shared this story, which captures just the right note as we begin the new decade. A customer pulls up to a local gas station. As the owner is filling the tank, the driver asks, “I’m moving to this town. How are the people here?” “How are they where you come…
EDITORIAL 2019 Full Of Oddities, But Things Can Change GREEN LIGHT LAW, BAIL REFORM ASTOUND Many sages over the centuries have concluded: The future has not yet been written, (if it ever is). Whatever we’re going through, this too shall pass. • You may have seen the Associated Press dispatch the other day: The Government Justice Center in Albany is suing to prevent Governor Cuomo from getting a pay raise, saying Section 7, Article XIII of the state Constitution prohibits…
EDITORIAL As Did Garretson, So Does Kennedy Kindred Spirits In Problem-Solving In a way, our Citizen of the Year designation – it will continue, of course – has come full circle. Interviewing Meg Kennedy, this year’s designee, brought to mind Tom Garretson, the first designee, in 2006. Throughout that stormy year, when the Cherry Valley area was torn between those who feared 24 industrial-sized windmills would degrade the town’s environment and ambience, and those who saw a boon in new…
MONEY TALK ‘He Lied Under Oath.’ That’s It By TOM MORGAN • Special to www.AllOTSEGO.com The bloodbath-cum-circus in Washington these days? It awakens memories. Of how a notorious American ambassador handled a similar brouhaha – the Clinton impeachment. He deployed a simple device. With it, he brought a certain order to the mayhem of the thinking of his friends. In one stroke he turned their murky thinking to crystal clarity. I am certain he would use the device today. G.…
WE’RE ALL IN THIS TOGETHER The Only Constant Is Change By LARRY BENNETT • Special to www.AllOTSEGO.com Once we are born, every moment of every day brings change. We are born biologically complete, yet with little else to our beings. We can’t speak, walk, or talk. As a baby, then in our youth, in our teens, maybe even through our twenties, we live through endless and often tumultuous changes. Every day offers fresh knowledge and new experiences. Our parents first…
