Editor:

It is heartwarming to read and hear about the great deeds being done by the community during this current period of uncertainty. Communities in Orleans County have a long history of responding in times of need and despair.

Recently each correction officer and staff member at the Orleans County Jail received a handmade facemask to aid in protecting against the Covid-19 virus. On behalf of Council 82 – Local 2966, I would like to express our gratitude and publicly acknowledge Kim Lockwood (her brother Terry Weaver, a retired Sergeant from the Orleans County Jail) for donating the materials and Lynda Standish for making the facemasks.

Their thoughtfulness and generosity provide hope and encouragement during these dubious days. Thank you for thinking of us, your efforts are greatly appreciated.

Sincerely,

Sgt. Chris Caufield

Local 2966 Union President

Editor:

In this time of crisis it is more important than ever that we, as a community, pull together in order to support each other and those that go to work every day to provide essential services.

These folks include doctors, nurses, first responders, those that work in grocery, drug, and other essential retailers, mail delivery personnel, and everybody else that is still going to work to provide services. They are putting themselves at risk in order for our lives to continue as “normally” as possible.

Genesee County had a “Corona Convoy” in which more than $4,000 was raised for Crossroads House. I happened to be driving through there and every street corner and country road intersection had people showing support – all while following social distancing guidelines.

I am soliciting ideas as to what we can do here in our community to pull together, support one another, and show our gratitude for the efforts of those mentioned above. Be it online, safely out in the open air, or whatever platform comes to mind.

I can be reached at OrleansBridge@gmail.com or The Orleans Bridge on Facebook.

Thank you.

Bob Harker

Clarendon

Editor:

I don’t get it.

Mr. Hawley says that his Legislative Survey was mistakenly sent out for reasons beyond his control, but then he doubles-down and asks people to take the very same survey, even though it completely avoids asking any questions about the Covid-19 virus. I don’t get it.

James Renfrew

Clarendon

Editor:

Isn’t it kind of defeating the purpose having a parade when we’re supposed to be staying home and distancing.

What I saw on the news was a lot of people standing on the sidewalk, shoulder to shoulder.

Where’s the common sense in that?

C. Brabon

Middleport

Editor:

Many of you may have recently received my survey in your mailbox. This survey was supposed to have been sent in early January prior to the start of our 2020 Legislative session to help me understand constituents’ views on issues.

It was held up for reasons beyond my control and was released, erroneously, as we face one of the most difficult times in our state’s and nation’s history with the Covid-19 Virus.

Please practice social distancing, stay home and wash your hands over and over and over. We will get through this.

Take the 2020 Legislative Survey online by clicking here.

Steve Hawley

Batavia

Member of Assembly, 139th District

Editor:

I want to go on record as endorsing Mike Sidari for the office of Mayor for the Village of Medina, as well as Village Trustees Marguerite Sherman and Timothy Elliott.

Mr. Elliott was my first point of contact in the Village government when I began the pursuit of funding a new concrete public skate park in Medina in early 2018. Tim provided a wealth of information to set myself and the Medina Skate Society on the proper path for gaining local support and fundraising for a new skate park.

Mrs. Sherman has been a proud supporter of the efforts of the Medina Skate Society both on the Village Board and out at our local events over the past year of fundraising. Marguerite has spoken positively of the Skate Society and the new skate park during Village Board meetings and has attended many of the skate park fundraising events even with family members in tow.

Mr. Sidari has been most helpful to the efforts of the Medina Skate Society and has been integral in progressing the project forward over the past two years. Mike has voiced his support for the project to other Village Board members even before the Village secured the Tony Hawk & Ralph C. Wilson Jr. Skate Park Grant. Mike has kept the lines of communication open, answering calls, providing documentation and keeping correspondence between Medina Skate Society members, the Tony Hawk Foundation, the Department of Public Works and the Village of Medina to ensure the skate park project is on track to become a reality.

Mayor Sidari has also made it a point to attend every event he was able to and has been a familiar (and friendly) face to our local skaters and Skate Society members.

I would encourage any and all Village residents to cast a vote for positive community engagement and development and re-elect Mike Sidari, Marguerite Sherman and Timothy Elliott.

Sincerely,

Alex Feig

Medina Skate Society President

(Editor’s Note: The village election was moved back from March 18 to April 28 and now has been moved again to a date to be determined in June.)

Editor:

I read that Apex Heritage Wind LLC submitted an application to the state February 26, 2020 for an industrial wind project in the town of Barre.

However, I can not access it because all the libraries and the town hall are closed due to the coronavirus pandemic.

My internet access is limited to my phone which will not download a lot of pages. I am sure that there are many others with little or no internet.

Is New York doing anything about this? Has the government suspended the process while we are dealing with closures and social distancing?

Nancy Blank

Barre

Editor:

I see the news every day, lawmakers are extending unemployment benefits for workers who have been laid off due to the Covid-19 crisis, extending help to small businesses, etc. These are fantastic things.

I am writing to ask what about the millions of us Americans that live and work every day with compromised immune systems due to underlying illnesses or from immunosuppressive medications?

The Americans that only have the choices of go to work at higher risk of disease and infection, or stay home voluntarily, make no money and not be able to pay bills or buy needed supplies. We fall through the cracks, not eligible for unemployment benefits because we stay home voluntarily in hopes to avoid infection, not eligible for assistance because we have a job we can go to if we choose that risk.

We are not lazy people, we would just prefer not to get sick if possible. Many of these people are hard-working Americans that pay taxes and contribute to society. I have written a similar letter to Senator Robert Ort’s office, with the only response being: “We have been hearing a few stories that are similar to yours and with everything rapidly changing each day, we advise people to continue to monitor the DOL’s Unemployment (https://www.labor.ny.gov/home/) website as they post changes and waivers of requirements as they come in.”

That’s great, but I don’t foresee the DOL waiving the “ready, willing, and able requirement” for unemployment. That would be welfare at that point.

All the while the state doles out millions of dollars to perfectly capable people that are flat out working the system to get a free ride, carry 1,000-dollar cell phones, covered in tattoos, freezers full of food, smoking cigarettes, carrying cases of beer and lotto tickets out of the stores and never paying any taxes, and getting tens of thousands of dollars back in tax “refunds.” How is it a refund? Last I knew, tax refunds were refunds for overpayment of taxes.

Scott Lonnen

Gaines

Editor:

I write to settle the unfortunate bickering about the handling of COVID-19 and daily changes in stories from the President since January.  While fact checking I found the previously uncirculated and complete 2016 National Security Council manual on pandemics. It is embedded in full in this article which follows.

The “play book” is fully indexed and has appendixes with contact and capability information detailed about who should do what in a pandemic of THIS magnitude – the why, what, when, and under what circumstances are laid out. If it had been followed there would be none of these distracting arguments now. The complete playbook (manual) is found by clicking here.

The existence of the Manual in the NSC office located in the White House settles any argument that the response has been anything other than abysmal. By January 23rd our scientists had confirmed COVID was just as highly with droplet (sneeze) transmission as suggested by China. That is the last date for any excuses not to turn the page to “1918” type outbreaks and those “additional” measures. Social distancing, tests, were weeks late by then.

Before President Trump was elected there was a fear that a property developer might not be up to the challenges of the Presidency in a crisis. Now we all have to pray our President, President Trump, finally listens to the actual experts and  executes the plan! You know I think it should be the United States Armed Forces in charge but no matter these delays are killing people.

Worse, if this President had simply funded the Bush/Cheney/Obama/Biden “Arura” project in 2017 we already would have 70,000 more ventilators.  (Look it up you Doubting Thomas’s and apologists.)

Frankly, we need to spend as little time talking about President Trump as he does thinking up and pitching all these daily yarns he then has to “clarify” or back down on. It’s bad faith use of the Bully Pulpit that both presidents Roosevelt – one Republican and one Democrat – used to lead us through and out of catastrophe.

Conrad F. Cropsey

Albion

Editor:

Thank you, Don Welch, for correctly pointing out that Assemblyman Hawley’s “Legislative Survey” is a not-so-subtle campaign flyer sent out on our dime. Mr. Welch, you beat me to it!

One thing you did not mention that I spotted immediately in reviewing the survey is that there is not a single question about the coronavirus. With that matter front and center in everyone’s mind I was astounded that there was no reference to it.

I am sure that this survey was in the works for some time, but was there no one with the wits to stop it from going out with this glaring omission? Maybe the Assemblyman shares President’s Trump’s view that everything will be back to normal by Easter, so no need to include anything about it in the survey? Good God, I hope not!

But of course the Assemblyman’s pet concern pushing for western/upstate New York to secede from the rest of the state is included, as usual. Mr. Hawley, I am a New Yorker. I was born here, educated here, and expect to live out my days here. Do not try to divide my state! Especially at a time like this.

James Renfrew

Clarendon

Editor:

As a concerned citizen, I’m speaking for myself and many others in my community. NYS is the epicenter of the coronavirus with 44,635 cases and 519 deaths (as of Friday) and people admitted to hospitals doubling every 4 days.

We would like to know how the governor can possibly justify expecting Correction Officers or any Corrections employee to put their lives on the line every day, but are not willing to protect them with masks, gloves and other equipment and stopping transfer of inmates between prisons. How does that even make sense for controlling or prevent spread?

The point about masks, etc. not being part of uniform code is completely moot. The world has completely changed. All the rules have changed. Absolutely nothing is as it was, yet the Corrections workers still show up. Every day they are on the front lines keeping you and your families, and the rest of us safe regardless of the fact that COVID-19 is just beginning to affect the prisons. They then however risk bringing it home to their families and community. Correction facilities are one of the most confined areas in the nation with 1.3 million incarcerated in state prisons, 3/4 of a million in local jails, nearly 200,000 in federal prisons and 43,000 in NYS prisons alone living in extremely close quarters.

If NYS is leading the way to be a teaching point for other states to follow, as you our governor stated, we should teach them the correct way. As of 3/25/2020, 75 NYC inmates had tested positive for COVID-19 and 37 Corrections staff members, up from 50 inmates and 30 staffers the previous day. Sharp spikes in positive tests should be a warning to those in charge of the realization that it could bloom into our nation’s first major outbreak inside a correctional facility, spread to others and then the communities. Those responsible for protecting you and your loved ones, me and my loved ones and everyone else at the risk of their own lives, need to be protected. They need the governor to stop the inmate transfers and provide masks, gloves and other equipment to corrections workers to do the job they are expected to do and are willingly doing, showing up in order to protect us all.

Joanne Johnson

Medina

Editor:

I received another purported “legislative survey” from Assemblyman Steve Hawley the other day, and wondered how much this one cost me. These thinly disguised political ads get under my skin.

So I’ve written some poll questions to go along with Mr. Hawley’s, perhaps not slanted the same way as his:

Do you feel sending out right-wing push polls is the best use of your taxpayer-paid assemblyman’s time?

Do you support calling them “legislative surveys” rather than campaign flyers in order to use your taxes to pay for them?

Would you like to know how much of our money your “representative” spent on it?

Do you think New Yorkers should continue to pay over twice as much for health insurance as citizens in all other advanced nations?

Do you think our school children should be protected from infectious diseases, like measles, which may be carried by anti-vaxers’ children?

Do you support jailing arrestees who are unable to afford bail, at tens of thousands in tax money per inmate per year, while those who can afford thousands of dollars in legal fees go free?

Would you prefer to share our highways with undocumented drivers who are unlicensed and uninsured, or would you prefer them to be qualified for a driver’s license and be insured?

How do you feel about those who have been imprisoned and paid their debt to society?  Should we give them a chance to become contributing citizens again, or discriminate against them for the rest of their lives?

Do you support continuing to spend our limited tax money subsidizing wealthy farmers (like, for instance, the Hawleys)?

If you have other questions for our representative, please, do let him know!

Don Welch

Clarendon

Editor:

I was scanning these letters and saw my name thrown in at the end of one. In Bob Harker’s letter, there was not much there to comment other than Bush trained people on pandemics, Obama trained Trump’s and Trump fired his.

But I have been thinking about a couple of things so he spurred me to write anyway.

First, the United States Military is the best in the world! Period! In difficult times like this no state can hold a candle to its ability to organize, purchase, transport, design, build, put up its MASH units, and EXECUTE. Take that for what you will but if it’s wartime, keeping them sidelined three-plus months into this (and well after our intercepts showed how bad it was in China and what was coming) does not seem consistent or wise.

Second, as far as the bailout being negotiated no one caused it and no one is to blame. I do, personally, cringe when I hear “cruise lines” mentioned. They are all foreign companies for tax reasons. I also wonder a bit about all the companies that spent their tax cuts buying back their own stock to drive up the price.

But what I really think about is Sen. Mitch Mitchell’s TARP which I saw firsthand. The banks got the money, executives got raises, workers got laid off, and the housing bailout was stacked (!) so the banks not only kept the money but also ended up nationwide with the majority of the houses.

That theology will hurt our county again and I bet 98 percent of the average people, myself included, who live here.

So that’s all except maybe to add that Dr. Fauci is currently my hero! I wish he and the Military would run the show. We need square shooters everyone trusts. Only a fool plays politics with life and death.

Conrad F. Cropsey

Albion

Editor:

In response to Mr. Fine’s recent letter, he claimed the President is not the blame for the coronavirus but he was slow in responding. His sources for info were the NY Times and Time magazine, along with CNN and MSNBC. They are the best in getting misinformation to the public.

He also used the adjective “lackluster” in responding to the virus. Let us look at the facts and have a comparison to make an intelligent evaluation..

It is suspected by the health experts that this flu started in October or November in Wuhan, China. China did not give any notice to the world until January 2020 and then downplayed it with the help of WHO (World Health Organization) which acknowledged a respiratory issue but they were not sure if was human to human transmission.

Keep in mind the House of Representatives tied up Washington for much of November, December and January with the phony impeachment of President Trump. At the end of January, he stopped travel between the US and China. He was not praised for this step but criticized by Joe Biden who said, the President was a xenophobe or racist for that action.

The President also assembled a team of health experts which has been led by VP Pence. That group has been doing an excellent job and keeping Americans up to date on testing and developing improvements to a system that was not made for this huge pandemic. With the President red tape has been cut to try to develop a vaccine and therapy drugs to stem this virus.

President Trump declared a State of Emergency on March 13, six weeks after stopping travel from China. Our first case of this virus was in January in the State of Washington. My first comparison involves the pandemic In 2009 described as H1N1 flu in the US which was discovered in April of 2009.

The President did not declare a State of Emergency until October 24, 2009 or six months after we saw the first case. As I write this, the totals in the US for the coronavirus are 50,000 have tested positive and 600 have died. My second comparison involves the 2009 pandemic which was discovered in April 2009 and lasted until April 2010 when the swine flu was considered over.

The CDC did not track this pandemic like what is being done now with 24/7 news. They have given approximate numbers which you can check on their website. They estimated in the US that between 61 million to 89 million Americans had the flu. They estimated that 195,000 to 402,000 were hospitalized. They also estimated that 9000 to 18,000 died and worldwide 500,000 died. All of these numbers do not paint a pretty picture but the health experts have claimed that the Covid-19 virus is three times more contagious then the swine flu. Someone is doing a great job in protecting the American public.

This flu is dangerous. It kills older people in particular. President has said each life is important to him and he wants to protect all regardless of age, gender, nationality or political leanings. I trust him and think he has done a superb job. Take the politics out of the situation and judge the results.

Ray Watt

Town of Yates

Editor:

I read an article in the Washington Post today that said, “Thousands of inmates released as jails face coronavirus threat.”

This is another example of the bleeding hearts in this country that will use any excuse to further their agenda to let felons back on our streets. A New York State Parole Board just released this month an inmate that in 1976 raped and murdered a young girl in Medina.

According to law he has to be released to the county in which he committed the crime for that county to bear the costs involved in supporting him. The politicians we elect set policy and staff these parole boards and our taxes support them. This is just another example of our tax money being wasted.

I don’t know about you, but I don’t want any felons back on my street, especially not ones that committed rape and murder. I have a wife, daughter and granddaughters that I’m worried about. Do you?

David Schrader

Medina