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Issue Home November 5, 2002 Site Home

Letters to the Editor Policy

We Ran Out Of Food

We would like to thank everyone for your support with our chicken and biscuit dinner. Sorry we ran out of food, we hope to do better in 2003!

Sincerely

Freedom Hall Assoc.

Elson Stone

An Inkling Would Help

I go over the Letters to the Editor in the Transcript every week, and I am astonished how they usually deal with such petty and parochial concerns.

Think of it. Al Qaeda remains unvanquished. The economy continues to struggle, and deficits have returned. We may be initiating an attack on Iraq, which will mean the deaths of many Americans and innocent Iraqi civilians, just because we can’t figure out any other way to deal with Saddam. The Middle East, unstable enough as it is, may well get much worse. North Korea is a real WMD threat, whereas Iraq is admittedly only a potential one, but there’s no personal angle there, so the Bushies are scarcely concerned.

We’re being led by a usurper Administration. Bush, who pretended to be a moderate when he campaigned, who promised to be "a uniter, not a divider," is anything but. He insists on nominating only extremists to the Courts, judicial activists of the far right who have contempt for any number of established precedents. And Bush is implementing one facet of an overall radical scheme to devolve government, and transfer political power to churches, and make us all pay for it. This could not be more diametrically against the intent of the founding fathers. Or, more Taliban-like!

All this is going on in our world, and it seems that most people around here are preoccupied with petty quibbles with township government, stuff that’s not even relevant to most of Susquehanna County. What incredibly small horizons these people have! Too many are content to be small fishes in their very small ponds. They should take a cue from Casablanca, and realize that their current obsessions don’t amount to a hill of beans in the larger scheme of things. It would help if they even had an inkling of a larger scheme of things.

Sincerely,

Stephen Van Eck

Rushville, PA

An Open Letter to Residents of Medic 301 Service Area:

Barnes-Kasson Hospital is appreciative of those citizens who have used and supported the Medic Unit operating from our Susquehanna site. The institution fully and wholeheartedly agrees that all people are better served with an Advanced Life Support service immediately available. However, this is no longer possible given the economics of the present time.

The Advanced Life Support units have been available as medical backup to the area’s first line of response, the local volunteer ambulance and fire companies. Barnes-Kasson brought ALS to this county and deeply believes in its benefit. The institution would have preferred to continue the employment of the medics and their services, for they are good medics and provided our area with excellent service. The Barnes-Kasson ALS Unit has had wonderful support from local ambulance services and thanks them for their tireless community service.

However, it is my duty to inform the public that effective January 1, 2003, Barnes-Kasson will close its Medic 301 Unit. This decision is one that we do with sadness and only do based on the lack of funding for the services provided.

Barnes-Kasson will do anything within its capability to assist the area ambulance and fire services. The hospital and medic unit thank everyone for their past support and wish the community a safe and healthy 2003.

Sincerely,

Sara C. Iveson

Executive Director

Barnes-Kasson Hospital

To Single Out Is Unethical

It was recently brought to our attention that there appears to be an organized, concerted effort, to urge the county, through its Economic Development Department, to aggressively seek a new retailer, and in particular move commercial development in general, to the Montrose area. The mailing of a signed form letter that states that any new development should be "in Montrose – not New Milford," has highlighted this effort.

As the elected representatives of New Milford, we indeed felt the need to publicly respond, as we recognize and encourage community participation in new development recruiting. New Milford does what it can to promote our community and realizes other communities do, also. To do this, we have, and will emphasize the positive attributes of New Milford’s strengths, as we are not alone in having plans and aspirations for businesses to fill the vacant buildings in our community. But, we do find it unethical to single out a particular community and degrade it. We are sure that these citizens are well intending, but misguided and represent the opinion of a small minority.

We wish to take this opportunity to also publicly thank Susquehanna County Economic Development Director, Justin Taylor, for his efforts on behalf of our community and all Susquehanna County communities. We look forward to working with him and other communities in our county in the future.

Sincerely,

New Milford Borough Council

October Snow In County?

October 30, 2002, the County Commissioners held a night meeting to set salaries for themselves and certain other elected officials. Six taxpayers, including two from the press attended. The first motion by the commissioners was to set salaries for 2004 and 2005. We were told that the previous elected officials meeting had set the raises at 4% for each year. This very large increase was questioned. In fact, I was told that since the increase had been previously set, the commissioners were obligated to accept the increase. By now you are probably wondering, like I am, as to why the commissioners have to vote on this if in fact it had already been cast in stone. Since it was being approved at this meeting, it seems that any lesser percentage could have been granted. It was not snowing outside of the courthouse that night, but I sure think it was a blizzard in the commissioners conference room! The 4% increase puts them at $44,464.76 for 2004 and $46,243.35 for 2005, and this is for part time work. Not bad considering that the social security increase for 2003 will be 1.4%. To further add insult, when was the last time your retirement increased and how much was the increase? Perhaps this is the bonus for letting the retirement fund drop from approximately 12 Million the 4.5 million.

Sincerely,

Tom Jurista

Silver Lake Township

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LETTERS TO THE EDITOR POLICY
Letters To The Editor MUST BE SIGNED. They MUST INCLUDE a phone number for "daytime" contact. Letters MUST BE CONFIRMED VERBALLY with the author, before printing. At that time you may request to withhold your name. Letters should be as concise as possible, to keep both Readerâs and Editor's interest alike. Your opinions are important to us, but you must follow these guidelines to help assure their publishing.

Thank you, Susquehanna County Transcript

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