Editor:

I would like to thank the following for being at and participating in the July 3rd Independence Day Celebration at Bullard Park: Keith Lutes and his bounce houses, KTJ Pony Rides, Karyn Papponetti, Steve with Jenna from Sun and Crow, Nola Concessions, DL Mugs, BK Kreations, Big Momma’s, Cool Rocks, Albion Masons, Eric Albro, Paeth Farms, Crystal Castle Bracelets, Wild Flour, Dan with the Balloon Animals, Last Call Cocktail, Air Raising Events, Rock Painting, Face Painting, Ace Hardware, Sav A Lot, GACRE Committee, Village of Albion Recreation Committee, Chicken barbecue cookers Tom, Dusty, Mark, Gary, Sacco Brothers, Trustee Tim, The Who Dats, Ryan and Company, Village Maintenance and anyone that may have participated that may have been forgotten.

We plan to have this as a yearly event every July 3rd. We would like to form a committee to raise funds for fireworks for the event. Anyone interested in chairing this is asked to email me at jgrillo3@hotmail.com. The community did a great job of supporting this event and making Albion proud.

Once again, thank you so much.

John J. Grillo

Village of Albion

Recreation Director

Editor:

Wow, what a week we just had here in our great county of Orleans. Multiple parades, fireworks galore, live music playing every night of the week and the list goes on and on.

Congratulations to all those clubs and organizations from all over the county that put forth that extra effort to entertain everyone. A special thank you also goes out to all the individuals that have been named in recent articles on the Hub about those activities. They have truly stepped up for their community. Locally, John Grillo for Rock the Park and Susan Oschmann for those amazing new basketball courts here in Albion are just a few of the many. How about all the folks helping this week with the Erie Canal cyclists, who happen to come from all over the world, awesome job!

There is so much more happening this summer in our lovely local county but you must pay attention. Look and ask around, then check out something new. 4-H Fair is coming in a few weeks too. The music continues to flow through the air waves every night somewhere in a town or village. Meet some old friends for an ice cream cone some night, check out a car cruise or be adventurous and go canoeing. Summer always goes by so quickly.

A thank you also goes out to those who donate their time and effort to organize those events to help the less fortunate, whether it is a medical need or disaster relief. It is amazing how many individuals step up when someone needs a hand.

Once again, a huge thank you to all of you who volunteer. You may not get the individual recognition but deep down within, you know that you helped someone and made a difference.

I love my town, my county and my country.

Jim Pratt

Albion

Editor:

I take this opportunity to publicly, personally and heartfeltly express my sincere thanks to every Republican who voted in Republican primary election. Whether you voted for me or not, thank you for exercising your right to vote and allowing the system to work and the people to decide!

Thank you to each of you who filled in the circle for me, indicating your confidence, belief and support for the job I’ve done for the past 34-plus years as coroner for Orleans County.  My heart is touched, and my spirit is renewed knowing that my fellow residents have the courage and intelligence to think for themselves and for recognizing the importance and necessity of experience and proper training.

Thank you to all my friends who took the time to help gather signatures for my petition to force a primary. This was a tough job requiring time and energy to obtain the 597 signatures needed. I was blessed with the combined efforts of so many people to have received 838 signatures.

I enjoyed the opportunity to visit with people who said, “Nobody has ever come to my door asking for a signature before.”  As I explained why I was not endorsed after 34 years, many eyes were opened and I hope the personal conversations encouraged many of the 1,993 people who voted for me, to go to the polls.

Thank you to all the unsung heroes who allowed me to place my election signs on their properties across the county. Thank you to all the committee men and women who, although not an officially endorsed candidate, still signed my petition and gave me their support.

Thank you to my friends and colleagues who wrote letters of endorsement for me, Judge James Punch, DA Joseph Cardone, Sheriff Christopher Bourke…your professional support will never be forgotten and has given me pause to give thanks for such great public servants and our personal friendships.

And finally, thank you to my dad, Bruce Schmidt. His constant support of my campaign, his undying efforts, (along with Lynne Williams,) going door to door to get signatures was never ending.

His encouragement to move forward, to keep going and to overcome the obstacles, is indicative of a consummate professional, a seasoned political operative, one who knows how to effectively campaign but, it is also indicative of a supportive and loving father…a title and position he has always held with his children.  I love you, Dad.

To all who helped with my campaign, I’m grateful and ask for your continued support in the general election on Tuesday, Nov. 5.

With heart-felt thanks,

Scott Schmidt, Orleans County Coroner

Medina

Editor:

To Mary Mager.  I had a Business Law professor at Cornell who stammered, stuttered and jumbled sentences that ran on and on.  I learned more from him than most because what eventually got out was valuable info. The content and relevance of what is said is what matters – not the presentation.

To Mr. Simon. You state that he peacefully gave up the reins of power? He never conceded defeat, he directly incited an assault on the nation’s capital to overthrow the orderly conduct of the governments business.

He tried to coerce a Georgia official to “magically find” 11,780 votes to artificially swing that state’s results. He has constantly invoked the “Big Lie” about a stolen election – to help keep our country divided and not thinking straight.

I’ll take a moral, honest man who has the fate of the American People at heart – even with some stumbling speech patterns – over a lying egomaniac, with empathy for only himself, any day!

Bruce Kirby

Albion

Editor:

Got back two weeks ago from Italy, my wife’s homeland, of which she previously, legally became a US citizen. No sooner here, our group decides to have a trivia contest, winner free meal at Red Lobster.

Well, in preparation, decided to watch “Jeopardy” for seven days, using Ken Jennings as my “coach.” I failed miserably! And with just cause. The international travel was 26 hours of uncomfortable “tourist seating.”

Caught a cold, (ten days to get an appointment with a doctor), felt Ken was overwhelming me with info on the categories on “US Borders”, “Foreign Policies”, “Inflation” (thank goodness “only temporarily”). I was over prepared and very tired.

My wife has defended me, “He’s the sharpest between 10 a.m. thru 4 p.m.” The dang contest was in the middle of the week at 9 p.m.!

Another conflict: I’m president of our local shuffleboard board. The talk is they want to get rid of me, I “shuffle” too much. And if I quit, the next in line for president is a woman who knows very little about my job. I am determined to hold my position at least till November.

As Walter Cronkite use to say “and that’s the way it is.”

Charles Woodworth

Englewood, Fla.

Mr. Woodworth is a former apple farmer in Lyndonville.

Editor:

After watching the debate the other night, I have been reading several letters to the editor saying Biden is the better candidate. My platform here is not to defend either candidate but to put forth the truth.

Biden’s cognitive decline has been obvious for awhile, and although the media has tried very hard  to camouflage this reality, there is no denying that the President’s missteps and paralyzed events are very alarming.

As we all know, Conservatives have said for months, Biden is unfit for the role of President.  However, after the debate debacle, many Democrats and independents are also seeing his fragility and incapacity. Panic is starting to set in.

It’s hard to imagine that behind closed doors, he emerges as a coherent and vibrant man. If that was the case, why would his son, Hunter, suddenly appear at his White House meetings? Only one answer: he wants to protect his father from more scrutiny and error.

I don’t see Biden getting out and aggressively winning over voters with enthusiasm and critical initiatives. Our border problems and economic instability are evident to most Americans.

The gut wrenching truth is he’s done.

Apparently Biden has been counseled by family and friends to continue his campaign. In fact Governor Gavin Newsom is heading East to meet with Biden. A governor whose failures in California include homelessness, early release of convicted felons, high gas prices, education failures (“According to statewide test scores released by the California Department of Education, two-thirds of students failed to meet the math standards, and more than half did not meet the English standards.”

Why would anyone engage with someone like that with a broken track record? They say “Birds of a feather flock together.”

It is never easy to steer a boat in a different direction, but to keep heading on the same path to disaster is nothing less than insanity.

Mary Mager

Fairport, and a former Albion resident

Editor:

Many Americans use the words “existential threat to democracy” when referring to former president Donald Trump’s actions on January 6th. Fine – for the sake of argument, let us accept that language.

Many Americans are using the words “existential threat to democracy” when referring to President Joe Biden’s incoherence during the June 27th debate. Shall we accept that language?

Perhaps there is a better question to be asked: Is President Biden able to fulfill his duties as commander-in-chief responsible for making truly existential decisions within 30 minutes to respond to a nuclear attack on America? I think not. With all due respect, let’s put it another way: Would you drive in a car with Joe Biden at the wheel?

Like Trump on January 6th, Biden is – at least for the moment – unwilling to do what is best for the country and resign.

Different circumstances between January 6th and June 27th? Sure. Granted.

Different outcomes resulting from January 6th and June 27th? Let’s hope not. For the good of our country, Donald Trump peacefully gave up the reins of power on January 20th, 2021. Will Joe Biden do the same?

President Biden should resign immediately, and Vice President Kamala Harris should be sworn in as president as soon as possible. Then let the November election chips fall where they may.

Jim Simon

Yates

Editor:

During the first presidential debate, President Biden enunciated numerous verifiable facts for those watching—and hopefully listening carefully to—the two candidates.  He may have been over-prepared.

Hardly any expert commentator has mentioned that—prior to the debate—Biden had been actively engaged in a grueling schedule carrying out the duties of the presidency.

As the analysts noted, however, Biden had an awfully weak debate performance. He lost his train of thought twice early on without successfully wrapping up two sentences. A bit later he said “Putin” when he meant to say “Trump.” That one got apologized for. Other gaffes were corrected.

But former president Trump had a horrible night as well. It was impressive that he adroitly avoided answering at least seven of the moderators’ questions. Jake Tapper and Dana Bash meekly tried—without success—to hold his feet to the fire. The former president’s success was amplified by dozens of misstatements dragged forth from the recesses of his mind.

What a shame that we get so caught up in the fault-finding that we miss the bigger picture.

Both parties have better candidates, but Biden is still the better choice in my view.

Sincerely yours,

Gary Kent

Albion

Editor:

During the debate, Donald Trump portrayed America as a nation terrorized by a wave of violent crimes committed by immigrants. Those statements are lies, period.

Official FBI data, which is collected from police departments all across the country, shows that we experienced a substantial rise in homicides in 2020, while Mr. Trump was President. Since Mr. Biden has been President, the homicide rate has leveled off and in the last two years has steeply decreased.

Furthermore, research from different institutions, has repeatedly shown that migrants commit far fewer crimes than U.S. born citizens. These are facts, they are public, and everyone can verify them.

Mr. Trump knows these facts and he outright lied to the American public. Granted, he lied with conviction and vigor, but he lied. I want to be totally clear, Mr. Trump did not just mis-state facts or statistics, he denied their existence; he lied.

It does not matter how often Mr. Trump, or his enablers repeat these lies they are still lies. Reality does not change because Mr. Trump and his enablers lie. Issues like crime, immigration, fair taxation, and economic policies are not going to be solved by lying.

Mr. Trump demonstrated he does not have command of fact-based reality. President Joe Biden, even with a cold and barely able to speak, demonstrated his command of fact-based reality. Mr. Biden has also demonstrated his dedication and resolve to making life better for the American people using fact-based reality, not fantasies.

Lying will not make America great.

William Fine

Brockport

Editor:

It was a shame Biden had a cold which made him look much older and talk way softer than Trump. On the other hand the fact checkers are going to have a field day with Trump. For example, the repeat nonsense about Pelosi and the Jan 6th film documentary was crazy as all anyone has to do is not fact check but instead watch it.

Of interest to me:

1) Trump did not deny he wants to impose across the board 10% tariffs which will raise the prices of what you and I buy at least that much. Then add extra profit margins and inflation and he did not try to explain away the economic disaster.

2) He did not deny he intends to withdraw from NATO.

3) He did not deny or explain why very few of his appointees will endorse him.

5) He did not deny the he and the Republican House want to cut Social Security 20% – to start with.

5) He did not deny he killed the bipartisan immigration bill.

6) He eventually admitted he would use his position to seek retribution.

7) He ducked women’s health and did not deny the current fiasco is on him.

8) He kept evading a simple yes or no about  accepting election results after all court challenges have been exhausted.

All in all true MAGA do not care about any of this even though he had plenty of time to address them but pivoted away.

On the other hand people with a sense of the history of American Democracy and concern about their economic and personal well being will care.

All in all a bad debate unless the viewer was very well read.

Conrad F. Cropsey

Albion

Editor:

Let’s note before the debate that I hope you will fact check with a fact checker and not someone on an entertainment show

Revolutionary Leftist radicals wrote our founding documents – the Declaration of Independence (Ben Franklin was 70 then) and Constitution (Ben Franklin brokered major deals on that at age 81). The first few words are “When in the course of human events…” Franklin and others knew we always exist at the forefront of the continuum of history.

You can not rewrite history. For example, the South did not fight the Civil War so slaves could choose slavery. The founders wrote they intentionally ruled out a national religion or to allow for all types of religion or (Washington) no religion at all.

Trump bragged he installed the justices needed to over turn abortion. The decision was based on a writings by a 17th century English Judge who sentenced woman to be burned to death as witches. It was an intellectually dishonest decision with broad implications.

Similarly this year only 8 Republican House members voted to protect contraception. That’s nuts! Medical advances allow us to live longer and have contributed to pushing the average age of marriage from the mid to late teen years to a person’s late 20s. Meanwhile the age of puberty and sexual curiosity has moved years earlier.

What good is original intent if it does not account for medical progress and the continuum of history. Contraception is a fact of life, not law.

IVF for families is now being challenged. None of this is how our radical founders wanted what they did interpreted. They wanted government to serve man in the present day.

American tariffs helped throw the world into world-wide depression. Republican President Coolidge and Hoover listened to businessmen and  ignored liberal economists and tried to turn back to a long gone tariff-based economy to stimulate the economy when the truth was they only protected elite donors businesses. Sales through tariffs that really only help elite businesses and everyone else. It was an out-of-date solution serving only a few.

Trump contributed to our current inflation with tariffs. He has been campaigning for more tariffs to close his deficit (it was 2x Biden’s the first time around). A tariff-based economy such as Trump talks about would repeat the single greatest economic mistake in history.

Trump always says elections are fixed – even the one he won – but has never produced proof. Everything with him is always been or going to be someone else’s fault. Even News Max is running disclaimers across the bottom of the screen sometimes when he talks. It’s his ego talking to always blame others and not good judgement – six bankruptcies later.

Importantly, one of the reason’s Hitler was able to seize control of Germany was he threw out the civil service and stacked government with his followers. That is exactly what Trump wants to do now. He claims he has to deal with the Deep State.

The Deep State which convicted him (wrongly he claims) and Biden’s son (rightly he claims).  (He neglects we have a legal and jury system designed to bend over backwards to avoid to avoid wrongful convictions!)

Trump knows enough to know he needs to remove the safety checks standing in his (or any other politician ) way when he/they try to break the law. We hire these civil servants to execute as long as the law on the books.

They are both old like Ben Franklin. So I ask all to listen to see which debater is wiser and sharper, not louder.  Which honors our founders and a democracy from, by, and for the people.

Conrad F. Cropsey

Albion

Editor:

I would like to congratulate Orleans County Conservative Party Committee-endorsed candidate Susan Howard on her win for Orleans County District Attorney.

I know Susan worked very hard to earn the votes of Republicans in this Primary. We know Susan is ready to take over, make changes for the better and have the best, qualified people to administer justice in our county.

Susan is a firm believer that justice is blind. From a low-life poison peddler selling drugs to our children to a corrupt politician, judge or rouge member of law enforcement, no one gets favoritism and the law will get applied evenly to all criminals alike even and especially the shop lifter.

She is qualified, ready and capable to do the many facets of this office. She will keep our county safe and work with our hard-working law enforcement to bring criminals to justice. She will make us all proud and protect our second amendment rights.

It is time for a new era of justice in Orleans County. Congratulations to Susan Howard, our new DA.

Paul Lauricella

Orleans County Conservative Party Chairman

Editor:

First, I want to thank God for the opportunity to run for office in this district and for all of the people I was able to meet along the way.

Second, I want to thank my family, friends, supporters, and staff. Everyone sacrificed something for this effort and I am forever grateful for that.

The truth isn’t always pretty but here it is:

Claudia Tenney attempted to blackmail me in 2022 when I was congratulating her on our concession call. She threatened to use a dirty, dishonest campaign against me if I ran again. And not being one to back down, I made the decision to run again that very night.

Claudia Tenney and the New York State Republican Party ran one of the most disgraceful, dishonest campaigns I have ever seen. It was full of shameful lies, photoshopped images, deceptively edited video clips, and even Claudia personally messaging voters with slanderous personal attacks against me, my wife, and my family. To say I was appalled is an understatement.

We took the high road and never resorted to horrible things I knew about Claudia that were actually true, and probably could have won us the race. We chose to hold on to our integrity and have some class. To do anything less would not only be wrong, but most importantly it would be disrespectful to the voters.

We have serious issues facing our nation and the failed establishment politicians like Claudia Tenney have helped to create them. That is why she has refused to debate me for over two years. Her record is indefensible and she would be exposed.

We had President Trump endorse against us, Speaker Johnson, Jim Jordan, every single Republican Chair, every State Senator and Assemblyman in the district, and millions spent against us. In spite of that and the smear campaign, we still got about 40% of the vote again. I couldn’t be more proud.

The Uniparty establishment knows that our America First message of shrinking government, securing our borders, keeping our money at home, staying out of endless wars, restoring traditional Christian values and fighting political corruption was a threat to their globalist plan to impoverish us, strip away our rights, destroy our families, make us more dependent on China, and put America Last.

We cannot give up or lose hope. Not now, not ever. Our race helped to expose the failed NY state GOP and the Uniparty politicians, which needed to happen. Now it is up to us to keep fighting them. We can win, and we will win.

What they did to me was an attempt to deter other real Americans from going up against the machine. It won’t work. We are proud people with huge hearts. And we will always fight to preserve our republic and protect our families.

I have a beautiful family that I have truly missed, and I am sure have missed me too, my son especially. My wife and I have another child on the way and we’re so excited to grow our family.

I look forward to getting back in the fight soon, but for now I am going to get some rest and reflect on this battle. The war goes on.

Thank you all for your votes, donations, time, effort and support. But most of all thank you for letting me speak for you and fight the establishment. It was the honor of my lifetime.

God has a plan for all of us, and this journey proved that to me. Stay tuned!

Your fighter and friend,

Mario Fratto

Geneva

Fratto, a candidate for the NY-24 Congressional District, lost a Republican Primary to Claudia Tenney.

Editor:

On May 29, Heritage Wind LLC submitted a modification request to the state Office of Renewable Energy Siting (ORES) asking for a 27percent megawatt reduction (173.6 MW to 126 MW) from the current Barre project.

The suggested changes would lessen the total turbine height from 656 to 640, a negligible difference of only 16 feet. All other aspects of the project: number of turbines, access road, lines and so forth would remain unchanged.

The Town of Barre entered into a zero dollar Payment in Lieu of Taxes (PILOT) contract. Instead Barre solely contracted a Host Community Agreement (HCA) on the basis of dollars per MW when the nameplate capacity was 184.8 MW. The Town, in doing this, would receive funding that should have directly corresponded with the adverse impact the turbines would place on the community.

However given the new modification request, the adverse impact remains unchanged but the community benefit is significantly reduced. The below chart indicates the $8 million loss to the community if the proposed changes are accepted without the developer being required to provide additional compensation.

This number is a $12.5 million loss from what the Town was led to believe when signing the HCA.

The chart shows the difference between the current modification and past requests for the Town of Barre, which includes $6,750 per MW as agreed HCA and a $0 PILOT.

Barbara Verburg

President of Clear Skies Above Barre

Editor:

Last night was a big loss for the 24th congressional district. With a Republican like Claudia Tenney in charge of our district for another two years, I see nothing but further decline for not only us but the entire country.

I found it very disrespectful the comments she made in the email she sent out announcing her victory, but that’s the Claudia way.

Paul Lauricella

Lyndonville

Orleans County Conservative Party Chairman