We appreciate input from our readers, and we publish letters to the editor without charge. The letters should be written by the person who submits the letter and not be “ghost written” by someone else. While open speech and responsibility are encouraged, comments may be rejected if they are purely a personal attack, offensive or repetitive. Comments are the opinions of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Orleans Hub. Although care is taken to moderate comments, we have no control over how they are interpreted and we are unable to guarantee the accuracy of comments and the rationality of the opinions expressed. We reserve the right to edit letters for content and brevity. Please limit the length of your letter (we suggest no more than 500 words) and provide your name, telephone number, mailing address and a verifiable email address for verification purposes. Letters should be emailed to news@orleanshub.com.

Editor:

Trump has effectively changed the world already.

In his first three weeks in office, Trump has ended the collective suicidal policies of Bill Clinton, George Bush, Obama and the last guy before him.

There are those who oppose Donald Trump. They are like the dinosaurs of the past, a force of regression. They are like dying stars, whose brightness we see but who died a long time ago.

How much corruption and government waste has been revealed but yet some refuse to see?  What a great time to be alive.

Ed Steuber

Erwin, Tennessee (former Albion resident)

Editor:

The Constitution divides the government authority between the three branches of the government: legislative, executive and judicial.

The legislative branch has the power of the purse: “Article I, Section 9, Clause 7: No Money shall be drawn from the Treasury, but in Consequence of Appropriations made by Law; and a regular Statement and Account of the Receipts and Expenditures of all public Money shall be published from time to time.”

The executive branch is tasked with faithfully enforcing laws passed by Congress. The executive branch does not have the authority to impound funds approved by Congress and it does not have the authority to disburse funds not appropriated by Congress.

Offering government employees a buyout with monies not appropriated by Congress is a usurpation of power by the executive branch. Closing governmental agencies, such as U.S.A.I.D., that have been supported and funded by both Democratic and Republican Congresses without Congressional approval, (even if supported by Russian propaganda, such as U.S.A.I.D. funds supported Politico and other statements of propagation regardless of who states it or how many times it is stated, it emanated from Russia and is Russian propagation), violates the separation of powers detailed in the Constitution.

While you can argue that the government spends too much money or is wasteful, the Constitutional way to choose which programs get monies or which programs to close is through the Congress – the people’s house. Having an unelected body, not accountable to the American people, with authority to close programs, or decide which programs to fund, totally bypassing Congress and making Congress useless.

That is how authoritarians govern, that is how dictators rule; that is not how the U.S. government is set up and it violates the oath of office taken by our elected leaders to uphold the Constitution.

William Fine

Brockport

Editor:

A prior opinion letter regarding cut back recommendations in USAID failed to point out important facts which rendered this recommendation.

This independent agency has been indirectly funding his political party with US taxpayer dollars. Also, international diversity projects don’t provide one loaf of bread to those in need.

I have to ask the writer is Politico a food provider or a mouth piece for the Democratic Party? Why did Politico receive 8 million dollars from USAID? Time to clear the wasteful spending and redirect this agency to the original mission it was established for.

Edward Urbanik

Lyndonville

Editor:

Please explain: the richest man in the world has scanned the Federal Government and found the most wasteful agency is feeding the poor overseas.

Instant closure and thousands of American workers stranded abroad. I am sure that Elon Musk (an immigrant, by the way) could have found cuts in the enormous contracts he has with the USA.

Is this how a “pro-Life” party will govern?

Gerard M. Morrisey

East Gaines

Editor:

Ms. Jones, in her letter of 29 January, asks good questions about the impact of the data centers at the STAMP site.

One important item I did not see in her letter was the amount of money the data centers would generate in taxes very year. In Loudoun County Va., where I live, our data centers provide millions in taxes each year.

I am not, repeat not, suggesting Orleans County open itself up to a large number of these data centers, only that any arrangement between local government and the data centers, even for only two data centers, must include a contract that details how much taxes they will pay each year.

That would be a reasonable question to ask at the Feb. 3 meetings.

Jack Capurso

Albion High School Class of 1960

Ashburn, Va.

Editor:

It’s time for the citizens of Orleans County to get answers regarding the “pause” at Martin-Linsen Residence that has not changed since September. Someone has to have an answer.

The facility had a waiting list of referrals for several years and suddenly that stopped. What happened? Poor management, too much highly paid staff, wrong billing procedures so there was lack of reimbursement?

Many of us contributed toward building this facility. I know services are still provided in the home setting but as a retired health care worker, many times patients need more than a few hours in the home setting and need 24-hour care in a facility.

In September two individuals asked for answers and none were given. Someone has to know what is going on.

Now Hospice is promoting the sale of spring bouquets. Where will this money be spent? Keeping lights and heat on in an empty building? Paying a person to answer the phone?

Please give us a reasonable answer.  This is a beautiful facility and should not be left empty.

Jeanne Crane

Carlton

Editor:

To my neighbors, I’m writing to implore you to join me this Monday, February 3, at a public hearing in Alabama, NY to demand oversight and protection for local citizens from the three planned hyperscale data centers planned for the STAMP site.

The hearings are at 2 p.m., 3 p.m., and 4 p.m. at the Alabama Firehall in Basom. I will personally be late, as (like lots of you) I’ll be at work, but I will attend late anyway. I implore you to attend too, especially those of you who can be there by 2 p.m.

Medina friends, just drive south on Route 63, and turn left when you get to Judge Road. The firehall is on the right. It is so important we make our voices heard when it comes to hyperscale data centers spring up, seemingly overnight.

Such data centers are massive, designed specifically to handle artificial intelligence, automation, data analytics, data storage, and a host of other big data storage pursuits. The top three hyperscale companies are Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud Platform (GCP), followed by Alibaba, Apple, and IBM Cloud, Meta Platforms, and Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI).

However, no one can tell you which of these companies are seeking to build at the STAMP site, as it is very likely the STAMP board had to sign nondisclosure agreements with the companies hiding behind all the LLCs vying for leases. This alone is troubling, as is the hastily planned and barely announced public hearing held in the middle of a Monday work day.

Data centers and their voracious appetites for power and water are growing at an unprecedented amount. In 2023, over 25% of all the power produced in the state of Virginia went to data centers, which could rise to as high as 46% by 2030 if such growth continues at its current pace.

Virginia is scrambling to address this problem, most recently with bipartisan legislation meant to address and ameliorate some of the problems host communities have faced. So is New York: Senate Bill S9960, introduced this past December, does the same. And make no mistake: the negative impact the Western New York community will face in the coming years is vast. It is no accident there has been so little publicity regarding Monday’s public hearing. But the plan to build these massive hyperscale data centers has such ramifications, everyone should know about it.

According to the official documentation from the three companies themselves (Potentia Holdings, LLC/Hydroscale, Project Rampart, and Stream U. S. Data Centers LLC/Double Reed), which was posted with the public hearing announcement by GCEDC, the scope and magnitude of the three data centers is breathtaking.

GCEDC plans to build five structures at the STAMP site, for a total of 3,450,000 square footage. They plan to use 645 megawatts of electricity a year. They plan to use 41,675 gallons of water per day. And they plan to store 2,260,000 gallons of diesel fuel underground for backup generators, should they lose power. They will run 24-7, 365 days a year.

There is no question that the local community, including nearby towns and cities, will bear much of the cost these companies incur unless rigorous and stringent regulations are put in place upfront. Such regulations protect everyone else, and they must be prioritized as highly as financial gains for the region.

According to the US Energy Information Administration (EIA), 645 megawatts is enough electricity to serve 538,228 households. That’s right–three data centers plan to use as much electricity in a year as half a million households. STAMP may as well be building a small city.

The outcome of such electricity usage? Expect your already high electricity bills to skyrocket. Expect the price of water to be even more of a premium than it already is. Expect the Tonawanda Creek Native American tribe, their Big Woods, and their waterways to face even more indignity and harm than they have already have. Expect wildlife as we know it to decrease and diminish in ways that harm each and every one of us.

When you hear about the financial incentives STAMP is handing out and telling you “Jobs Jobs Jobs” is the end all be all and answer to everything, demand to know this: what kind of oversight protections for the host communities are written in?

What good are highly specialized, finite jobs for a select few when everyone else is likely to face skyrocketing energy costs? What will happen to the region’s water and air when power outages result in massive diesel fuel usage from the backup generators? What happens when something goes wrong?

What will happen to the Indigenous community that relies on the Big Woods for sustenance, rituals, and medicine after Big Data has desecrated it? What about the impact of any discharge – heated or treated water that consequently affects the temperature and biodiversity of nearby tributaries, wetlands, tribal land, Iroquois Wildlife Refuge, Oak Orchard Creek, and Tonawanda Creek?

There are so many concerns that must be raised, and Monday, February 3, at 2, 3 and 4 p.m. at the Alabama Firehall on Judge Road is all of our opportunity to raise them.

See you Monday in Basom, neighbors.

Karen Jones

Shelby

Editor:

The Republican “Law and Order” Party elected a known convicted felon to the Presidency.

This Republican-elected felon has carried out his campaign promise to pardon those who violently attacked police officers protecting our government. Officers Brian Sicknick, Howard Liebengood, Jeffrey Smith, Gunther Hashida and Kyle deFreytag died as a result of that attack and 140 officers were injured.

One of the attackers pardoned by the President, Jacob Chansley, (the man with the horned-animal headdress and body paint, dubbed the QAnon Shaman), stated he was now going to exercise his Second Amendment rights and buy some guns.

Another man, Daniel Ball, pardoned by the President for attacking police officers on Jan. 6, 2021 with explosive device was re-arrested in Florida on weapons charges. Republicans elected a felon who promised to open the prisons and release violent criminals to prey upon U.S. citizens. He has kept his promise.

Besides pardoning cop beaters, the felon President also pardoned Ross Ulbricht, a convicted drug kingpin. Mr. Ulbricht was convicted in 2015 of selling more than $200 million worth of drugs including heroin, cocaine, and LSD.

Mr. Trump promised last May to pardon Mr. Ulbricht while courting votes and campaign contributions from the crypto industry. So, the pardon was not a surprise nor unexpected.

Republicans knew who they were voting for last November. This is just some of the evidence that the Republicans have abandoned law and order. While loudly proclaiming they support law enforcement their actions demonstrate that they do not.

William Fine

Brockport

Editor:

Simple solution: We do not have to invade Panama. The All-American solution is US ports and railroads.

Rail, supplemented by water and truck, can deliver overseas freight without Canal tolls.

This also strengthens USA infrastructure.

Gerard M. Morrisey

East Gaines

Editor:

On inauguration day Trump pardoned all of the 1,500-plus Jan. 6’ers. Most of these had already served their full prison time.

But the few hundred released on Jan. 21 were the worst of the worst: Proud Boys & Oath Keeper leaders and their ilk.

Be aware that wannabee dictators always have groups of thugs that are used to intimidate any and all opposition. They are particularly needed in the early phases of a dictator’s takeover. In these early stages the wannabee will seek to damage, or destroy,  the existing system of government.

In a democracy the changes are done legally whereas the wannabee’s thugs use illegal violence and intimidation to pave the way for the changes. These thugs will not have uniforms or name tags so as to make them hard to identify. This will make it easier for the  wannabee to claim no knowledge of these acts of violence and intimidation. He will say he has no knowledge of the violence and will say it certainly isn’t his police or army doing this. Of course, after the violence and intimidation have helped obtain the takeover the wannabee changes the laws. After that the police and military will be used to enforce the new dictatorial laws.

I feel it certain  that Trump will create his own private army from these pardoned Jan. 6’ers.  Hitler’s similar groups of thugs were called the Brownshirts. They helped Hitler to gain and consolidate power in the 1920s & ’30s.

Dennis Seekins

Lyndonville

Editor:

Give me your foreign born billionaire yearning to take over the world.

Your wretched high-tech male oligarchs selling all your data hoping to be richer.

Send the faux news actors to run the country for me.

I lift my lamp to see all the gold you have in store.

Danise F. Austin

Albion

Editor:

On Monday, January 20 we replace a very confused, slightly angry old man with a slightly confused, very angry old man. There must be a better process that we can follow.

The current primary system favors extreme views, early in the process. Early primary states should have a later “Correction of Errors” phase.

Gerard M. Morrisey

Gaines

Editor:

Local Republican legislators – Congresswoman Claudia Tenney, Congressman Nick Langworthy, and State Senator Rob Ortt, (all who endorsed a convicted criminal for President) – have expressed their opposition to the Green Light Law which allows for undocumented immigrants to have drivers’ licenses.

In order to obtain a Green Light Driver’s license, the applicant must apply for a learner’s permit, pass a written exam, take a driver education course and pass a road test as well as provide documents proving their identity, age and residency.

Undocumented immigrants make up over half of farm workers, according to Cornell University and they comprise a large share of construction and health care industries.

These people have families, and they drive their children to school and extra-curricular activities. They drive family members to doctor’s offices and to their jobs just like the rest of us.

Ending the Green light Law will not stop them from driving, but it will drive them underground and make driving less safe for all New Yorkers. Studies from New Mexico and Utah show that there is an increase in vehicular accidents and in the rate of uninsured drivers without the Green Light Law.

There is no evidence that the Green Light Law makes New Yorkers less safe. Our immigration system is broken and needs to be fixed, migrants need to have a legal way to enter the country, find jobs and help our economy grow. This Republican legislation of blaming others and punishment will not address the issue and shows their lack of seriousness.

William Fine

Brockport

Editor:

Karen Sawicz is owed tremendous thanks by all current residents of not only Orleans County but the easily connected people who routinely access the Orleans Hub from afar!

I remember conversations with her going back about 15 years ago, following the death of her parents. I would stop in to the Lake Country Pennysaver offices to pay an advertising bill to her delightful front office crew and Karen would occasionally pop out of her office for a chat.

Even then, Karen’s personal life had changed from residing in Orleans County and she did have a potential buyer for The Lake Country Pennysaver, but she also had concerns.  She loved this county and she had pursued options to not only continue The Pennysaver but to also bring Orleans County into the virtual world of what she ultimately developed to become the Orleans Hub.

We have all benefited from her concerns, her diligence and countless decisions to not sell at that time. Instead, she focused on the development of a Virtual Hub and secured spectacular staff we all know so well and by the wonderful “Letter to the Editor” opportunities for any of us.

This Orleans Hub goes all over the world instantly by a push of keyboard strokes by any of us and has enabled such healthy discourse and promotions unlike ANY of our neighboring counties!

Thanks Karen, we owe you so much … from one Karen to another!

Karen Watt

Albion