Editor:

Well, they’re at it again. At our last Barre Town Board meeting the attacks on free speech continued with the directive from Supervisor Pogue.

Without a vote of the board he dictated a new rule to make it very difficult for any town resident to speak freely. His dictate is this: From now on if you wish to address the Town Board you will have to leave me a voicemail Tuesday before the meeting, and along with that he will no longer allow you to be on a list of speakers for an extended period.

Barre is limiting the number of speakers to just 10 people. Gee, Mr. Pogue, what if someone has an ongoing issue, or what if someone needs help? Will you deny them the opportunity to air their grievances unless you approve?

Well sir, I’ll inform you that we in America have what’s called the First Amendment. When you continue to allow the same person from our Planning Board to stand up and stump for Heritage Wind but not allow the people to respond, you have just committed another act of malfeasance.

You are free to be silent in Barre.

John Metzler

Barre

Editor:

For the second year I have received an “escrow deficiency” letter from my mortgage company.  Both times now I have been required to pay a lump sum of roughly $950 (plus/minus a few bucks) due to tax hikes, out of pocket to offset this, and my mortgage has increased significantly regardless.

The first year I paid the $950 +/- and my mortgage still went up almost $55 and change. This year I am opting to not cough that cash up because simply put, I do not have it. Because of that, my mortgage is going up again, this time significantly to the tune of an extra $160/month. The math says in 2 years my mortgage has gone up $215 in 2 years… For what?

In 2015 when I purchased my home on South Avenue here in Medina, my mortgage was roughly $540 a month. After the last escrow deficiency my mortgage went up to $595 and some change – keep in mind I coughed up $950+/- just to keep it that low. My new mortgage statement for the month of December 2019 is now $756/month moving forward.

I ask you, what the blue bloody heck has this town done to warrant that kind of hike?  What are we spending this money on?  Where is it going to?  I don’t have kids in school and I don’t use any of the “services” outlined in the towns justification for doing this, not to mention most of the big services I actually need (i.e. water/sewer) are things I pay for out of pocket every 3 months anyways.

I’m a firm a believer in “don’t like it? Change it” So I’m selling my house, and moving out of this godforsaken state. There is no reason that I am paying nearly $3,800 a year in taxes to live in a town with less than 6,000 people on a 1,600 square foot house, in a town with literally nothing to offer but bars to get drunk at and pizza places. I purchased my barely 1600 square foot home for less than 60k and if I follow through with my mortgage full term in this town, I will have invested over $100,000 for seemingly nothing. And I already know this isn’t the end of the tax hikes.

I saw the proverbial writing on the wall early in this year, and thus purchased a home in PA just over the border, where my yearly taxes are roughly $1,150 all-in.

I urge all of you to go to more meetings, voice your opinions loud and clear and most importantly vote them out.

P.S. My house will be on the market or for rent sometime before or right after the new year.

Sincerely,

Leonard Lauricella

Medina

Editor:

On behalf of the Orleans County Legislature, I wish to share our appreciation to all of the Highway Departments across Orleans County and to our First Responders for taking quick action during our first snow fall of this season.

Public safety is a very high concern for the Legislature and we made it through this early snowfall thanks to everyone’s dedication. Your actions did not go unnoticed.

Thank you.

Lynne M. Johnson, Chairman

Orleans County Legislature

Editor:

I write about impeachment so people know the basics without all the bickering.

First: The President and Congress are all required to take an oath to uphold our laws and Constitution. Our framers took oaths very seriously!

An oath meant you were putting your soul, your reputation, and your place in history on the line. Gentlemen, with internal moral compasses, were expected to know the difference between what is meant to fully and faithfully carry out our laws and Constitution and anything that served other purposes.

Second: Our founders were extremely concerned to avoid the prospect of there ever being a king, a strongman, or dishonorable person who put themselves first. Therefore anyone who violated the oath could be removed for “bribery, extortion, and other high crimes and misdemeanors.”

They did not distinguish between an attempted bribe or if the bribe or extortion worked or not or anything else that violated the oath. If the President (with or without anyone helping him/her) took any actions that sounded like bribery they were betraying their oath. For criminal purposes, and not impeachment, there are certainly lots of ins and outs for each and every criminal act. (Clinton got impeached but did not get removed from office as his perjury did not affect putting the Country first.)

All sort of words are getting tossed about – due process, having the whistle blower testify, refusing to answer questions or respond to subpoena’s etc. A couple of comments about basics are important.

1)  Law keeping the confidence of whistle blowers predates the Constitution!

2) The processes being used reflect Congresses past practices. Intelligence matters and grand jury are secret. The House is simply acting as a grand jury. The fact that the President can hear the witnesses and cross examine them in the House (and before trial in the Senate) is not in the Constitution but is what was done for Clinton.

It seems like either public relations or a ploy hoping the Supreme Court will interfere with long-standing Congressional processes.

3) Congress has the right to issue any subpoena it wants and has its own authority to jail anyone who does not comply. The exceptions are for presidential secrets or anyone else if they go to court to quash the subpoena as improper. In the past Congress and the President work out a compromise.

But a) generally once anyone talks about a Presidential secret or any issue in public any claim of privilege vanishes and b) Congress almost never uses its independent power to hold people in contempt for not going to court as it does not have jails and would have to rent them out or build them.

There is simply no existing right to just refuse a subpoena. I am thinking that the President hopes the Supreme Court will agree with a legal defense that he can do anything he wants anytime – in a Appeals Court last month one of his attorneys claimed the President could actually kill people and not be stopped.

Attorney General Barr who has also sworn allegiance to Opes Die seems to believe that. It’s a dangerous idea!

Conrad Cropsey

Albion

Editor:

A partial list of Republicans who are familiar with the Constitution includes Mark Sanford, John Kasich, William Weld, Charlie Dent, Mitt Romney and Jeff Flake. I suspect most of that group also have an idea why Mr. Putin wanted Donald Trump in the White House.

Then there is the group that includes Kevin McCarthy, Jim Jordan, Tom Reed, Mitch McConnell, Lindsey Graham, et. al. This bunch either has no idea what constitutes impeachable offenses or have never actually read the Constitution. Perhaps they are just good at playing dumb.

As I recall, officials of the executive and judicial branches may be impeached by the House and—if convicted by a 2/3 vote of the Senators present—removed from office for “treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors.”

Article II, section 4 does not specify whether one has to receive  bribes or offer them, as in, “If you give me what I want on my political opponents, I will give you what you desperately need (as in military aid to fight the Russians).” And I believe it was James Madison who used the word “misdemeanors.”

Part of the Constitutional definition of treason includes “giving aid and comfort” to the enemies of the United States. But Republican demagogues such as Tom Reed using the disingenuous device of suggesting that impeachment and removal from office is some sort of “execution” is pathetic.

That tactic is simply an attempt to muddy the waters for people who must work for a living and do not have enough time to keep up with all the nonsense put out in the “Tweet Parade.” Misleading people is exactly what Representative Reed attempted to do in an interview with Margaret Brennan on “Face the Nation” (November 3rd).

Article II, section 3 says flatly that the President “. . . shall take care that the laws be faithfully executed.” It is part of his oath of office. Once Congress appropriated $391 million in assistance to Ukraine and the President signed it, as I read the Constitution, it was his Constitutional duty to execute the will of Congress. When he tried to make delivery of the military aid contingent on Ukraine’s leader announcing an investigation of the Bidens, he was violating his oath of office under the Constitution. I strongly suspect most Constitutional scholars would say that alone arguably constitutes an impeachable offense.

By the way, Article II, Section 1, clause 8 requires the President to “. . . preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States.”

Yet some of the same “leaders” who went after Clinton in the Lewinsky affair want to give the current occupant of the White House a pass on something far more egregious than Clinton was impeached for.

For the record I don’t think impeachment is a good idea.

Sincerely yours,

Gary Kent

Albion

Editor:

With the 2019 election in the books now for a week, I would like to take this opportunity to say thank you to the voters in the Town of Ridgeway who came out and voted for me.

I would also like to congratulate Brian Napoli on winning another term as your Town Supervisor. Brian has and will continue to serve in an honorable way as the gentleman he is.

When I set out in March to run for this position I was honored to meet with people who signed my petition as a Democrat. During the last six months I have also had a chance to speak with people about some of the things that they feel are important to them.

One thing is certain people are passionate about their community. I look forward to getting more involved locally in the future and again want to say thank you for those who supported me.

If I can add it’s my desire that more people engage in their local community government by attending meetings, asking questions and holding our representatives accountable.

Sincerely,

Michael Maak

Ridgeway

Editor:

I am unable to clean my driveway – broken arm – and put out a plea on Facebook. No one but a friend in the UK responded, and it made me feel so helpless.

I watch neighbors with big trucks and snowblowers, ignoring my dilemma – next thing is I see the candidate for Ridgeway town supervisor hand shoveling me out. You are a gentleman and my hero, Michael Mack, your mother and father would be so proud. Thank you ever so much.  Sometimes everything is right in my world. I’ll pay it forward.

Debby Rodrigues

Medina

Editor:

President Trump is accused of using taxpayer-approved foreign aid for his own personal profit and to subvert U.S. national interest. Republican supporters of Mr. Trump are critical of the testimony by witnesses under oath claiming that the witnesses are “never Trumpers.”

The witnesses include career diplomats Marie Yovanovitch and William Taylor as well as career military personnel Lt. Col Alexander Vindman. They have all sworn allegiance to the Constitution of the United States. They did not swear allegiance to Donald Trump.

None of the President’s supporters are disputing the facts. The testimony that has come out shows that the President has used his position to profit personally, hamper our ally (Ukraine) and promote Russian agenda.

The President has tried to suppress evidence by claiming executive privilege on all evidence and testimony. It is interesting that two indicted witnesses, Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman, are being extended executive privilege because they did work for Rudy Giuliani. Republicans need to explain their support for subverting our foreign policy for personal gain of the President and I would like them to explain their loyalty to Donald Trump over our Constitution and rule of law.

William Fine

Brockport

Editor:

Property rights does not mean “without regard to others and without regard to local laws.” One cannot build anything/anywhere they desire – it’s called zoning for a reason.

Residents that own in Residential/Agriculturally zoned areas do not want commercial or industrial structures/buildings/businesses to infringe on their rights.

Also, Sean Pogue is the one who made this election only about wind turbines for himself. However, for the candidates for Citizens for Change, it is far more than turbines. His last plea to the community was all about the turbines, why? Because, he will lose money if the three of them are not elected.

Fact: Sean is listed as a conflicted member on Heritage Wind’s page. That means he stands to benefit from the proposed project. Notice Apex put a letter in as well. Paul works for them so of course he’s going to try to persuade voters in Barre – it’s a product he is trying to sell.

Vote Citizens for Change: Gerald Solazzo for Barre Supervisor, Cindy Burnside for Town Councilwoman and Kerri Richardson for Town Councilwoman.

Cindy Burnside

Barre

Editor:

With it time for local elections, I contemplate the state of politics within our own town of Murray. What many residents may not realize is that at least half of our present councilmen in office are there by appointment, which has become commonplace.

When later they run for election, it’s harder to remove an incumbent and so they stay. In other words, when a position becomes vacant, the list of pals gets pulled out, they close their eyes, spin around and play pin the tail on the donkey, or so it seems.

Why do this?  You might ask. Choosing a pal is more likely to ensure a “yes” vote. This group may be doing a good job at the helm, but who is to know? When surrounded by yes men, who’s to know if things could be done a little better? Or even a lot better? It’s like a recipe. It looks edible and it tastes okay but add a little of this and a touch of that and voila, so much better. You don’t know what you’re missing.

As you may know, my husband, Dirk Lammes, is involved in our local politics and presently has a seat on the Republican committee. Two years ago he and three others were able to fly under the radar of the establishment to force an inconvenient primary. It was then that Dirk received and angry phone call from an individual of the establishment who said, “What do you guys think you’re doing forcing a primary? These positions have been filled by appointment for 30 years!” Whoa.

And although Dirk and I have been bombarded with family distractions lately, and family always comes first, Dirk continues to have the same free thinking passionate pride in his community as always.  We’d both like to see some changes in leadership. Break the cycle of appointments. Bob Miller lost in the primary election when Joe Sidonio won under the Republican ticket. Joe also holds the Conservative and Independent lines. Be a humble and gracious man, Bob. Vote Joe Sidonio for Town Supervisor.

Sincerely,

Kathryn Lammes

Murray