Editor:

Take out the AI boom and the US economy is already in recession. That is a hidden fact.

The Fed resisted raising interest rates but since our bonds sold for less this in effect raised the cost to pay them off just as much as a rate raise would have. 12% of our bonds are held by buyers in the Cayman Islands haven of secret  tax-free accounts.

Rich tax cheats have increasing power to manipulate our finances. (Truthfully though the only way to afford to cut taxes is to have the Treasury print money which foreigners buy as debt instruments. Our debt is a monstrous amount and we depend on them to keep buying. We very much need want friends as creditors at this point.)

FinCEN just announced it will end reporting beneficial ownership interests in organizations involved with fentanyl sales. Talk is cheap when at the same time you make it easier to hide and profit.

Current Commerce regs require in return for R&D funds the government in return takes equity interests in the corporations doing the research. (Definitionally that is socialism). MAGA, not progressive capitalists, are socialist culprits.

Our ships near Iran are unharmed they can not be repaired or restocked as our ports in the Mideast were targeted instead. Iran is playing for the long haul while my grocery bills and fuel bills are still going up. And Iran refuses to negotiate with real estate moguls we sent instead of diplomats.

Muslim lists are not being proposed again, like they were 2017, but a high school football star (with a MD and PhD) is being called the central figure in a “jihadist” plot to take the Senate. (Loose words like that must be reserved for our true enemies!)

My point is that there is stuff going on which is being hidden by headline grabbing daily rants. When the Iranian press irritatingly proves to be more accurate than the Secretary of Defense we have a self-defeating  problem with credibility.  When the President demands neither he nor his family can ever be prosecuted for “tax fraud,” it’s clear thoughts about inflation and how we are doing are things he “really doesn’t care about.”

This is not the US I grew up in and love. Regular people need to turn out to vote and take it back from elite scoundrels. Short of seizing ballot boxes, turn out will make it harder to steal the election.

Conrad F. Cropsey

Albion

Editor:

Matthew Ballard’s recent letter (“Use real data, rather than emotions, in spending tax dollars to address crime,” Aug. 3) attempts to dismiss community concerns over criminal justice reform as mere “appeals to emotion.”

However, in his eagerness to champion academic models over local realities, Mr. Ballard overlooks the concrete operational costs, fiscal burdens, and logical fallacies embedded in today’s reform environment. My final reply. We are of completely different mindsets.

First, Mr. Ballard relies heavily on the concept of “victimless” or “quality-of-life” offenses, arguing they should not be met with punitive measures. But no crime occurs in a vacuum. When low-level offenses and repeat shoplifting are left unaddressed, the harm does not disappear—it is simply transferred to local small businesses and taxpayers.

Furthermore, Mr. Ballard completely ignores the massive hidden costs imposed on rural municipalities by New York’s Criminal Procedure Law (CPL 245) discovery mandates. Gathering, redacting, and cataloging digital files, body-cam video, and paperwork under strict statutory deadlines requires dedicated compliance staff, software licenses, and extensive officer overtime. When local law enforcement and district attorneys are forced to expend limited county tax dollars just processing paperwork for repeat offenders, taxpayers pay a very real price. That is not an emotional anecdote; it is an administrative and fiscal reality for rural counties like Orleans.

Second, Mr. Ballard presents a flawed comparison when he attempts to benchmark Second Amendment rights against violent crimes such as rape, incest, or child molestation. This analogy breaks down on basic legal and moral principles. Crimes of violence are committed by willful actors who actively choose to disregard the law and violate another person’s fundamental rights. In contrast, exercising a constitutionally protected Second Amendment right is the lawful act of a responsible citizen.

Conflating the actions of bad actors who break the law with the rights of law-abiding citizens shifts focus away from individual personal accountability. Society must punish the criminal who chooses to commit a heinous act, rather than restricting the rights of peaceful citizens or minimizing the harm caused by those who defy the law.

Data and academic research certainly have a seat at the table. However, when “data on paper” is used to downplay local municipal budget strains, small business losses, and basic standards of personal responsibility, it isn’t superior policy—it’s simply ignoring the total cost of the equation.

Paul Lauricella

Yates

Editor:

It was my pleasure to witness the 110 senior citizens at the Village of Albion Senior Citizens Picnic held at beautiful Bullard Park on Thursday, August 13 at 4 p.m.

The senior citizens were treated with a chicken barbecue, hot dogs, hamburgers and several sides with a drink and dessert. Music was provided by The Hastings Duo where you saw the senior citizens clapping and enjoying the music. There was a fun trivia contest which brought laughs to the group. Following trivia were a few questions where they received prizes. It was great to see Mayor Tim McMurray, Trustee Jami Allport and Trustee Greg Bennett attend the picnic and speak to the senior citizens.

Special thanks go out to Jeff Holler and the Albion Masons for preparing the delicious food. Thank you to Mike Neidert from the Town of Albion and two members from the Town of Murray for setting up.

Thank you to the Albion DPW and Jay Pahura for assisting and cleaning up following the event. Thank you to Becky Karls for her assistance along with Jonette Jackson. Thank you to Ezera Bloom, Noah Harrison, ChrisJen Winters and Semaj Miller for assisting in serving and helping the senior citizens.

A huge thank you to Bernie Baldwin and Diana Kindig Grillo for always being there to help in any way possible.

Finally, thank you to the senior citizens for all the years in our community.  This event was sponsored by the Village of Albion Recreation Department.

Sincerely,

John J. Grillo

Village of Albion Recreation Director

Editor:

North Shore Networks’ public statement issued on Thursday is a textbook corporate smoke screen. They are attempting to isolate our neighborhood, downplay severe risks, and protect their $11.2 million contract before a New York State Supreme Court judge can review the case. While they claim our safety metrics are “inaccurate,” their public defenses contain major, documented admissions of administrative shortcuts.

Our opposition to this tower baseline has always been firmly rooted in public safety and critical infrastructure protection, not just aesthetics. We submit the following point-by-point engineering, procedural, and legal facts to correct the record for the community and the state grant monitors:

1. The Explosive “Vietnam” Engineering Disclosure: North Shore boasts about having a Professional Engineer (PE) stamp. However, Rick Stacey just conducted a direct meeting with the actual Vietnam tower supplier (ARE) and the domestic engineering firm, the Paul J. Ford Engineering Group. During this meeting, it was discovered that this tower was purchased with a completely generic engineering specification.

The Cause: North Shore Networks never provided any site-specific Structural Analysis (SA) specifications or environmental criteria for the actual site location at 961 Wilson Road prior to fabrication.

The Substandard Specs: The factory generated its specifications based on generic broadband equipment, stating the tower was loaded to 68% with a generic engineered ice-loading wind threshold of only 40 mph. This is nowhere near the mandatory ANSI/TIA-222-H/G engineering regulations, which strictly require coastal wind shear loading parameters of 109 mph for the open shoreline of Lake Ontario.

The Engineer’s Admission: The engineer from Paul J. Ford Engineering explicitly stated that this tower does not—and cannot—have a valid PE stamp for this specific site location until North Shore actually provides all necessary on-site metrics for review and approval. Furthermore, the engineering group stated they were completely unaware of the extensive safety and fall-zone oversights that Rick Stacey pointed out during the meeting.

2. The Insurance Carrier Steps In Over Active Liability Exposure: The financial walls are actively closing in on this illegal footprint. Following the formal claims and risk alerts filed by our neighborhood, the Village of Albion’s municipal insurance carrier has officially contacted Village officials, demanding immediate documentation regarding the physical property damages caused by North Shore Communications’ contractors to our private road. Furthermore, the insurance carrier has demanded the Village answer for the specific Risk and Safety requirements explicitly pointed out by Rick Stacey regarding the severe human safety liabilities this tower creates. When an insurance reciprocal begins auditing its own policyholder’s structural footprint over an un-stamped, water-logged site, standard municipal immunity is completely voided.

3. Unlawful Multi-Agency Conflicts of Interest and Self-Dealing: North Shore’s statement is completely silent on the severe ethical violations guiding this project framework under New York State General Municipal Law Article 18:

The Incurable Interlocking Conflict of Councilman Ryan Woolston: Carlton Town Councilman Ryan Woolston simultaneously serves as the Director of Information Technology Services (ITS) for Orleans County—the exact entity that owns, deploys, and financially benefits from this broadband network expansion. Instead of recusing himself, Councilman Woolston has remained an active participant in Town of Carlton proceedings, explicitly voting to spend town tax dollars to retain outside attorney Bridget O’Toole to fight neighborhood residents and protect his primary county employer’s assets.

The Dual Conflict of Kevin Sheehan: The local building permit was granted by Kevin Sheehan, acting as the Town of Carlton Code Enforcement Officer. Mr. Sheehan completely lacks mandatory New York State Code Enforcement Official Certification required under 19 NYCRR Part 1208, rendering his permits legally void. Compounding this legal defect, Mr. Sheehan simultaneously serves as an elected Trustee for the applicant and land-owning municipality (the Village of Albion). He is acting as the enforcement regulator for the Town on a project governed and leased by his own elected political board.

4. Defeating Risk Category IV and Carlton’s 240-Foot Fall Zone Laws: Because a structural or ice failure directly threatens human lives, residential properties, and a critical municipal water grid, this site must legally be designated as a Risk Category IV Critical Infrastructure Site. Under these safety metrics, the engineering fall zone for ice shedding strictly expands to 240 feet (1.5 times the true 160-foot height including the lightning rod).

Town of Carlton Zoning Code strictly requires a safety fall zone of 1.5 times the tower’s height. The project lacks this room. The County and contractor are willing to go to any length to shoehorn this structure onto a lot that cannot fit it, which would require a formal modification of Town Zoning Laws—an action that mandates a strict public notification and a formal town-wide meeting. The Town of Carlton completely skipped this process.

5. The Timeline of 4 Deceptive Relocations and Underhanded Pivots: This project has been shifted and manipulated behind closed doors four separate times to evade state and local laws:

First Layout: When the ConnectAll grant was originally submitted, the tower was located on the north side of the National Grid power lines.

Second Layout: They secretly moved it to the south side of the power wires after realizing the north position heavily violated the NYS Coastal Management Review for the Lake Ontario waterfront. Realizing the lot was too small to fit, they illegally incorporated the neighbors’ private road right-of-ways into their commercial construction site plan.

Third Layout: Once Rick Stacey blocked North Shore and their contractors from trespassing on private land, they pivoted again. They sent out a deceptive “Notice of Rescheduled Planning Board Meeting” to move the August 5th meeting up to August 3rd. At this rigged meeting, they forced through an emergency amendment to relocate the main driveway to Wilson Road, trying to protect their non-compliant footprint without public oversight.

Fourth Layout: After Stacey provided measured tower layouts showing the county, town, and village that they do not have the proper fall zone safety requirements for this tower location, the county asked North Shore to conduct an instrument site survey. They are now pivoting once again by trying to relocate the tower even closer to the National Grid power lines without proper professional engineering design approvals and National Grid approvals for the unsafe exposures they are creating. This is pure negligence in trying to complete their contracts. This location still does not alleviate the fall zone and falling ice shedding risks noted by Rick Stacey.

6. Outside Counsel Acting Without Legal Board Appointment: At the August 3rd Planning Board meeting, Rick Stacey explicitly pointed out these structural and safety deficiencies. In response, attorney Bridget O’Toole stepped in, acted as self-appointed judge and jury, and told Rick he could not speak any further, flagrantly pushing the vote through while silencing the public. The shocking truth? Ms. O’Toole was not even officially approved or hired by the Carlton Town Board until this week’s meeting on August 11th. She was running public meetings and threatening to have Rick Stacey removed from the meeting before she even possessed a valid contract with the Town.

7. The Core Engineering Lies and Blindfolded Boards: Core Engineering and Core Environmental submitted a report to the zoning board claiming this tower has “no environmental impact, visual impacts, or value impact” to neighboring properties. This is an absolute fabrication. When we personally interviewed Town of Carlton zoning board members, county legislators, and Village of Albion employees, they openly admitted they were never given physical elevations, models, or visual renderings of this tower installation.

8. Concealing the Massive 82″ Above-Ground Monstrosity: Not a single local official, county legislator, or employee at the actual Village of Albion Water Plant was made aware of the physical reality of this tower’s base. They were absolutely shocked when we brought the manufacturer blueprints to their attention showing that this monstrosity features an 82-inch high steel base attached to a 20-foot wide concrete ballasted foundation protruding entirely above ground right on the open shoreline overlay.

9. Point-Blank Power Grid and Fire Suppression Threat: The tower sits inside a hazardous 28-foot window of National Grid distribution lines, which connect directly to the main transmission lines 200 feet to the west that feed the municipal water plant. Shifting this tower closer to the lines completely ignores the lake-effect ice-shedding projectile risk. A structural failure or an ice-shattered line corridor will trigger a cascade grid blackout, shutting down the Water Treatment Plant, wiping out county water pressure, and completely crippling vital emergency fire protection services across the entire district.

The County and Towns ignored a perfect compromise to keep the project moving

Our neighborhood has proven from the beginning that we are not trying to block broadband expansion in Orleans County. To protect our community and completely resolve this hostile administrative deadlock, Nesbitt Farms officially stepped forward and offered a much more appropriate, safer piece of their personal farm land as an alternative inland location for this tower.

The Nesbitt family has farmed this area for 58 years (since 1968). Moving the tower inland to their orchards handles the county’s connectivity needs perfectly, achieves full TIA-222 structural compliance, and completely removes the threat to the public utility grid. Yet, despite this generous and logical community offering, Orleans County has completely ignored Steve Nesbitt’s plea, offering absolutely no response to the proposal.

Evasion of public transparency: broken promises and FOIL violations

Worse than ignoring our solutions, local officials are actively hiding the paperwork. The Town of Carlton, the Village of Albion, and Orleans County are all intentionally holding Rick Stacey’s Freedom of Information Law (FOIL) requests. They have systematically refused to supply the requested documents, prolonging their responses far beyond the legal timeline limitations mandated under New York State Public Officers Law. They are trying to run out the clock to keep the community in the dark.

This is a direct continuation of their broken promises. On Tuesday, July 28, 2026, at 4:30 p.m., Rick Stacey personally attended the Orleans County Legislature meeting. He stood before the full board, pointed out these exact engineering deficiencies, and requested a personal meeting to review these critical structural findings. Legislature Chairwoman Lynne Johnson explicitly acknowledged Rick Stacey on the record and replied, “We will set up a meeting.” To this exact date, that promised meeting has never happened. They chose to ignore the evidence, avoid the sit-down, and send in un-appointed lawyers instead.

Submitting generic, sub-standard Structural Analysis specs, stalling statutory public FOIL data, ignoring formal requests from citizens, and allowing conflicts of interest to guide public funding violates the covenants of Empire State Development’s ConnectAll program.

We have officially escalated this entire paper trail to the New York State Comptroller and Empire State Development under the New York False Claims Act to request an immediate administrative freeze on all grant draws for Site 21. Sunlight is the best disinfectant. This backroom deal ends here.

Respectfully submitted,

Rick Stacey

The Unified Neighbors of Oak Orchard on the Lake / Wilson Road

Nesbitt Farms

Editor:

In Yates, short-term rentals should not be allowed on a shared lane. They should only be allowed on a private lane where that person has their own driveway in and out,  as where it only affects the person’s privacy that is conducting the business.

Shared lane residents who all share the expense of the lane and the maintenance of it should not be subject to the wear and tear that is created by the person running such a business and profiting from it.

The people on the shared lane should not be subject to the worries of the strangers coming in and out and disrupting the residents’ right to peace and quiet.

Furthermore the residents of a shared lane should not have to be in constant alert for their children and grandchildren with strangers that are unaware of the fact that children are at play. We have witnessed such renters not obeying speed limits and not having concern for the land owners that pay the taxes.

My proposal is that STRs/airbnbs can be allowed in rural areas but not on  shared lanes. This should be prohibited due to the fact of the people who spent top dollar for their places and taxes on the lake for their peace and quiet and being worry free of strangers.

If any one  is concerned or would like to have their voices heard, then you should attend the meeting at the Yates Town Hall in Lyndonville on Thursday, Aug. 13, at 7 p.m. and all other meetings because this issue is currently on the agenda and is very much active and new laws will be written soon.

Meetings are the second Thursday every month at the Town Hall at 7 p.m.

Bonnie Mack

Yates

Editor:

Huge, insane, disparity in wealth causes a fusion of government run by elites and money/job dependent politicians. (“Post capitalism”)

But good capitalism depends on economies of scale (bulk buying), competing sellers to keep the price down (unless public sources are cheaper and better like police, school lunches, and mortgage assistance programs), and sufficient regulation to ensure a fair playing field.

The progressive Democrats are consistently laser focused on affordability. They propose using basic economic tools to right the ship.

Being liberal because you want to help regular people is better than being conservative because you help the rich who run a deep state holding onto power.

I think we have to keep an open mind and decide if some of the progressives may be the best capitalists to come along in a long time. In these economically aberrant times it bears watching.

P.S. Why are President-related forces are using the primaries to see where votes and machines are stored? We already have excellent state monitors for this. Do we need monitors for the administration’s new monitors? Hmm.

Conrad F. Cropsey

Albion

Editor:

Last month, I traveled to Washington, D.C., with Citizens’ Climate Lobby to join hundreds of Americans from across the country in meetings with members of Congress and their staff.

During CCL’s Conference and Lobby Day on Capitol Hill, I met with the office of Congresswoman Claudia Tenney and other members of Congress around the state to discuss policies that can strengthen America’s energy future while addressing the challenges of climate change.

As a lifelong Republican who lives on a farm in a rural farming community, I understand how closely our livelihoods are tied to the natural world. Farmers know that stewardship is a responsibility and that taking care of our land, water, and air is something that should unite us, not divide us.

I encouraged Congress to support permitting reform that makes it easier to build the infrastructure our country needs for cleaner, more efficient and affordable domestic energy. Efficient permitting processes can help unlock investment, create jobs, and improve our energy security. I also support market-based policies that ensure American businesses can compete fairly while encouraging innovation and cleaner production.

As a Republican and a member of Citizens’ Climate Lobby, I believe in the Republican conservation tradition championed by Theodore Roosevelt and Richard Nixon. Conservation, innovation, and free enterprise are not competing ideas—they are complementary strengths that can help America build a stronger economy while protecting the resources that sustain us. That’s the message I was proud to bring to Capitol Hill.

Rob Johnson

Medina

Editor:

It was encouraging to interact with so many people who “get it” at the Orleans County 4-H Fair recently. While serving at the Orleans Bluebird Society booth, I encountered many folks who had stories to tell about orioles, pileated woodpeckers, bluebirds, native sparrows, rose-breasted grosbeaks, cedar waxwings and numerous others.

People from as far away as Dallas and Houston had stories to tell about the reality of climate change. One guy told me it was over 102 degrees and 98 percent humidity in Houston as we spoke.

The Orleans County Federation of outdoor sports clubs had the conservation cabin all decked out. And that black bear was something to see—and be seen with.

Thanks to folks such as Mike Elam for another job well done. And kudos to his wife Krys for being so supportive of his efforts.

Sincerely,

Gary Kent

Albion

Editor:

I appreciate Mr. Lauricella taking the time to respond, and I want to clarify, I am not dismissing concerns about public safety. I am dismissing concerns about public safety that are built on anecdote while ignoring the data in front of us. Those are not the same thing.

Any honest debate about safety in our communities requires a careful blend of data and lived experience, not one at the expense of the other. Mr. Lauricella has been a vocal advocate for fiscal responsibility, so I’ll ask directly: is it responsible stewardship of taxpayer dollars to fund programs, initiatives, and legislation based on how some people feel, particularly when those feelings run contrary to what the data actually shows?

Mr. Lauricella points to a rise in unpunished “quality-of-life” offenses, and here is where we clearly part ways. So-called victimless crimes and quality-of-life offenses are precisely the category where we’d be better served addressing root causes rather than reflexively reaching for punishment. The prevailing instinct among hardline conservatives on this issue is a punitive one, which conveniently keeps the prison-industrial complex well fed. Perhaps that’s no accident, given how central the prison system is to the economic “health” of our region.

From what I’ve observed, public criticism of bail reform in New York tends to lump every offense together — petty theft and manslaughter treated as though they sit on the same shelf. That criticism conveniently ignores both the facts and the actual intent of the legislation, which is to reduce recidivism rates for low-level offenses. This is exactly where data matters, because one person’s lived experience, however real to them, isn’t a stand-in for the experience of an entire population. I don’t think Mr. Lauricella is actually disputing the validity of the research. I think he’d simply prefer that “observing reality” mean whatever aligns with his existing opinion.

I’ll skip the broad brushstrokes this time and instead leave Mr. Lauricella with a question. He argues that academia and statistical models shouldn’t “supersede the firsthand experience of local business owners, residents and crime victims.” Is that a standard you’re prepared to apply consistently? Take, for instance, the firsthand experience of parents, teachers, school administrators, and survivors of school shootings — should their testimony be what drives legislation restricting access to firearms? Or take the firsthand experience of survivors of rape, incest, or molestation — are conservatives equally willing to let those lived experiences shape how we legislate abortion? Or is the anecdote-over-evidence approach reserved for the topics where it happens to be politically convenient?

Much of this latest letter reads as an argument for governance by the loudest minority rather than the majority informed by evidence. It would help if Mr. Lauricella defined, in concrete terms, what qualifies as a “genuine community concern,” listed the actual problems facing Orleans County, and identified their real causes. Absent that, this amounts to little more than an appeal to emotion.

Matthew Ballard

LeRoy

Editor:

 How exciting for movie fans everywhere! Santa Claudia supports using millions of dollars of your public funds to renovate and upgrade private commercial movie theaters all across Orleans and Genesee counties! Who says socialism isn’t alive and well within the republican party?

Problem is, the joke’s on you taxpayers – there are no qualifying movie theaters in either Orleans or Genesee counties.

Keep in mind voters, business & corporate taxes become public money.  Tax “credits” equal less taxes owed, which in turn, means less public money for your schools, police protection, fire safety, water, street repairs, parks, public services and so forth.

Not only do you receive no benefit whatsoever from Claudia Tenney’s “timely and important” SCREEN Act legislation, your public resources are subsidizing these private business projects in other towns and cities! Finally, adding insult to injury, she then leaves it up to you to make up the difference in your own communities!  What a gal!

How patently unfortunate. Just think of all that missed growth if only Albion had a newly renovated Main Street movie theater directly across from the real Santa Claus! Heck, even with Sneezy’s and The Olde Coach long gone, a colossal attraction of that magnitude would likely have drawn scores of people from as far away as Kent, Fancher or maybe even Millville! It sure makes me nostalgic for the old Rialto lost to the ages so long, long ago.

Oh well, no sense mourning what might have been. Perhaps Claudia can live up to her name and “claw back” enough of your corporate welfare, hard-earned tax dollars to at least re-open the Sunset Drive-In in Middleport.  Which, by the way, was better than any movie theater around!  Although it’s technically in Niagara County, it’s still way more than what you’re getting from this dud of a deal – nothing.

That reminds me Claudia, didn’t you catch Ms. Mager’s letter to The Hub a little while back?  Here in New York State, we’re already terrified to walk our dogs in broad daylight let alone venture into the unknown just to see a movie. Perhaps a change in priorities is in order?

As for me, living on a fixed income makes it a challenge just to buy a small bag of popcorn and still feed my three-legged cats. Perhaps, if I could afford to turn the lights on, I could then find my car keys, roll up all my loose change, get to a gas station and buy a half-gallon of gasoline. Only then might I risk murder and mayhem for a trip to the closest movie theater. That being said, it’s already been six months since my brakes didn’t pass inspection. My how time flies when you’re winning under Donald Trump.

Rochester, Buffalo and their surrounding areas already have some of the finest movie theaters anywhere.  The hard reality is that unless the “SCREEN ACT” has provisions to stop the rude jerk from talking in the row behind me, the oblivious idiot down in front lighting up the place with their cellphone, or reeling in the cost of a small Coca-Cola below $5.00 – neither I, nor most people, will be enticed any time soon to return to the cinema in spite of their tax-payer subsidized seating, sound systems and HVAC.

In other words, great give-a-way Claudia!

Voters, come this November, make a quick note to yourselves: “CLCL” in remembrance of Clueless Claudia and her “SCREEN ACT” which, in communities across America like Orleans and Genesee counties, will go over like passing gas in church.

Before I close, any guesses why all my cats have three legs?

Fact is, under the Tenney/Trump economy – it’s the only way we all can afford to eat!

In short, it’s not just for immigrants anymore.

Tom Graham,

Rochester