Editor

I’d like to thank everyone who came to Thursday night’s Town of Murray work meeting. Despite the Murray Town Board being a “No Show” residents filtered in with genuine interest.

What was to be a Town Board work meeting addressing the complex nature of domestic partner health care coverage, turned into an open forum by a diverse group of citizens openly discussing a variety of topics. It was fantastic, respectful and incredibly productive. Amazing!

Dirk Lammes, our Highway and Water Superintendent, openly discussed his department and the challenges ahead. It’s refreshing to have a knowledgeable, experienced person at the helm willing to share information and listen to the voices around him. Outstanding!

Since the evening turned into such a success, I’m willing to have an evening with the Supervisor every 2nd Thursday of each month. I will make myself available for anyone who has something on their mind to come over and talk without all the formality of a regular Town Meeting. I’m here, I care and we have a lot of work ahead of us.

My mother always said, “Never turn down an invitation.”

Thanks again to everyone who attended for the great evening. It’s the way it should be!

Joe Sidonio

Murray Town Supervisor

Editor:

The new voter suppression law in Georgia was ostensibly passed to prevent voter fraud. However, the evidence of massive voter fraud is missing.

In over 60 court cases no evidence was produced. Every state certified their election as fair and free of fraud that would overturn the election. Mr. Trump’s Attorney General William Barr and the director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, Christopher Krebs, both stated that there was no massive voter fraud.

In Georgia, News station WDEF reported: “After a day of hearing evidence of election fraud in 63 cases, Georgia officials have decided to pass 24 of them on to prosecutors,” (2/18/21). There were over 4 million votes cast in the Georgia presidential election and only 24 allegations of voter fraud serious enough to be considered for prosecution. Voter fraud is minuscule; (.0006% of the election). Furthermore, the law that was just passed does not address those cases of voter fraud.

The real rush to push voter suppression laws is because when voters turn out they rejected the policies of Republicans who control of the Georgia state government. The New York Times (4/3/21), reporters Nick Corassaniti and Reid J. Epstein, went through the Georgia law and found 16 “provisions that hamper the right to vote for some Georgians, (principally people of color), or strip power from state and local elections officials and give it to legislators.”

For example in the new law there will be fewer drop boxes. NYT reports: “For the 2020 election, there were 94 drop boxes across the four counties that make up the core of metropolitan Atlanta: Fulton, Cobb, DeKalb and Gwinnett. The new law limits the same four counties to a total of, at most 23 drop boxes based on the latest voter registration data.”

Instead of trying to appeal to voters, Republicans want to win elections by suppressing voting and gerrymandering. This is the very definition of Jim Crow laws and it diminishes and damages our democracy.

William Fine

Brockport

Editor:

As families throughout the state have tightened their budgets throughout the Covid-19 pandemic to prepare for an uncertain future, the Majority has decided now is the time to become more cavalier than ever in their spending. Worse yet, by increasing spending to historic levels, we may have less than ever to show for all of that spending in this incredible time of need for so many small businesses throughout New York.

In this second-largest budget in our nation that spends more than those of the large and populous states of Texas and Florida combined, and almost as large as California’s proposed executive budget for this year, a state with about twice as many people as ours, we will give $2.1 billion to illegal immigrants in stimulus and unemployment payments while only giving small businesses about $1 billion in assistance.

These small businesses employ our neighbors, pay taxes that fund our municipal governments and emergency services and make our communities the unique places we know and love. The loss of these businesses would devastate the communities that rely on them and our state as a whole, and it should not be controversial to want to support businesses that families have worked to build for generations rather than people who disrespect our laws in order to enter our country.

As unwise as this spending is, it’s also unsustainable in a very dangerous way. The Majority is treating the hefty federal stimulus we received this year like an incredibly-irresponsible person would treat lottery winnings, spending it all rapidly to start living a lifestyle we won’t be able to sustain that will be financially ruinous for our state in the future. The money we’re spending now won’t be there this year, but it’s unlikely the people and agencies across the state it supports will plan for that. Instead, we will be forced in the future between painful tax increases or spending cuts, which will come with very real consequences for our economy and our communities.

Those in the Majority would do well to look at how their constituents have “lived within their means” in the last year as we pass this budget that’s 20% larger than last year’s. If New Yorkers managed their finances like their government did we would be in a very bad place, and I only hope the consequences of this budget do not bring about suffering in communities that have worked to be responsible with their resources.

Assemblyman Steve Hawley

Batavia

Assemblyman Hawley represents the 139th District, which consists of Genesee, Orleans and parts of Monroe County.

Editor:

Before the Covid-19 crisis, New York had a serious “tax-and-spend” problem. Now, during the pandemic recovery period, is certainly not the time to go on a reckless spending spree that will ultimately further hinder the ability of our citizens to survive and remain in New York State. Unfortunately, Albany’s downstate-driven leadership simply could not help themselves and continued to accelerate an already speeding tax-and-spend freight train which is clearly heading towards the edge of a cliff.

Breaking the state’s 2 percent annual spending cap, this budget increases spending by $34 billion. Let that sink in. This is the most expensive budget in state history at over $212 billion in overall spending and will raise taxes permanently by more than $4.5 billion. Our state debt is the second highest in the country, and this budget only increases it further, indebting even more generations of New Yorkers…or whoever is left behind to turn out the lights.

It’s sadly true. Over one million New Yorkers have already left since Governor Cuomo took office because of overspending and “tax-and-spend” policies. As they have left, they have taken with them jobs, their tax revenue and the New Yorkers left behind have been asked to pony up a greater share of their incomes to make up the difference. While the financial cost is difficult to bear, the human cost is crushing. Families are broken up, lives are changed forever. The pandemic exposed the new American diaspora in ways that technology will never make up for. And budgets like this are directly responsible for it.

This budget was an opportunity to set our state on a new fiscal course. With $12.5 billion coming in from Washington, we could have passed a balanced budget this year but also make one time investments in infrastructure, broadband connectivity, or pay down debt to help address the high cost of living in our state to curb outmigration.

Instead, downstate-driven leaders at our state Capitol chose to create a new multi-billion program to provide unemployment payments worth more than $15,000 per individual to undocumented persons. They also chose to strip away even more of your local control when it comes to the taxing of massive energy projects like wind or solar farms in local jurisdictions. For all the reasons outlined above, I voted against the state budget in its entirety.

However, having been appointed as a member of the Joint Budget Conference Committee on Transportation in addition to my role on the Assembly Ways and Means Committee, this year I had a greater opportunity to serve during the budget process. Having worked very hard on key priorities for our community I am pleased to share that many of them have been included in the final budget agreement, including:

INFRASTRUCTURE: The Consolidated Local Street and Highway Program (CHIPS) will be seeing its first funding increase in nine years with $100 million in new funding. The Extreme Winter Recovery Program will also get another $100 million.

BROADBAND: I was a sponsor of the Comprehensive Broadband Connectivity Act and worked across the aisle with my colleagues to get this bill passed in 2020. Unfortunately, the governor did not sign the bill into law at the time. However, we were able to persuade him to include it in the final negotiations and it was included in the final budget.

LIBRARIES: Many of our libraries are historic and in need of capital improvements, but Albany has not given this funding the attention it needed. I’ve worked hard to raise awareness for this year and an additional $20 million was included in the final budget agreement. This nearly doubles their funding allotment.

VETERANS: One of the most successful programs to help veterans is the Joseph P. Dwyer Veterans Peer Counseling Program. The governor proposed cutting the program, but not only were we able to restore it, nearly half a million dollars more in funding was added to further the mission of this wonderful program.

DEVELOPMENTAL DISABILITIES: The budget also expands services for people with developmental disabilities in terms of day services and family support. All of the governor’s proposed cuts were restored and new funding was also added to this vulnerable population.

WORKFORCE DEVELOPMENT: As the chair of the Assembly Minority Learning for Work Task Force, I am very pleased to see workforce development initiatives similar to those championed by our task force included in the budget.

I’m glad to report we have made progress, but quite frankly these appropriations are a drop in the bucket in this reckless spending plan. The bottom line is that the budget over spends in unsustainable ways and further divides upstate and downstate in its spending priorities. Ultimately this will continue driving people out of state, hurting everyone in the future.

Mike Norris

Lockport

(Norris represents the 144th Assembly District which includes portions of Erie, Niagara and Orleans counties.)

Editor:

This is in response to Matthew Ballard’s recent letter attempting to equate the new Georgia election law with Jim Crow laws.

Ballard’s letter is the textbook definition of the Red Herring logic fallacy. As owl.purdue.edu puts it, this fallacy is a diversionary tactic that avoids the key issues, often by avoiding the opposing arguments rather than addressing them.

Diversionary tactic? Narrating the horrid history of racism in the U.S. without once building a case against Georgia’s election law.

Avoiding the opposing arguments? Never once mentioning any regulations of the Georgia law that he opposes, or that are in any stretch of his imagination on par with Jim Crow laws.

Verdict? Well, I will leave that to the gentle readers.

Jim Simon

Yates

Editor:

I want to know why it is so difficult to open a phone or get records of text and phone calls resulting in the death of our son on March 23, 2021. He was a disabled Vet who suffered from multiple illnesses as a result of Iraq. The latter being bilateral kidney cancer.

He served with honor and pride. He did not drive. We know what he got was laced with multiple types of fentanyl and a horse tranquilizer. There was no heroin. We suspect it may have come from Rochester.

We want to see justice but also help reduce other deaths from this. We think of who he was and not how he died. We need to do more to prevent these deaths.

Orleans Recover – Hope Begins here offers peer consulting, Missing Angels, Jesus Factor and Narcan training. We all need to be a part of getting these drugs out of our county and hold those responsible.

Our organization is nonjudgmental and non-bias. We want to help those in need and offer support where it is safe and comfortable. We need more volunteers and funding. We want to get out there to those in need. This is a disease and they need help to find the root cause.

We all need to be part of the solution for it is all over. We need to work together and hold those accountable. We do not want to see another life gone to substance abuse. We cannot help our son but we want to help others to choose a pathway that fits their needs through recovery.

It is good for our county and communities to get involved. We are at Suite 190, 243 South Main St., Albion, NY 14411. The hotline number is 585-210-8750. We want to get out in the communities and let all know our services.

It is heartbreaking to see the losses, those using and how it affects the user and their families. We all need to work as a team.

Brenda Sills

Medina

Editor:

Rumor has it that the Irish were disliked because they were red-haired, Catholic, and worked hard. The Chinese followed Gautama Siddhartha and Kung Fu-tse, among their other “faults.” Italians revered a Pope and often had dark hair. Mexicans lived in what is now the United States before the Pilgrims landed in 1620.

Without native-Americans and these—and other—ethnic groups the United States might not be the fascinating and great country that it is today. We might never have had an Erie Canal or a transcontinental railroad. The sandstone churches of Albion, Holley, and elsewhere may never have been built. For that matter, Orleans County might not have an agricultural economy were it not for the migrant farm workers who came here from Africa via the old Confederacy and what was once part of Mexico.

My grandparents came from Austria after World War I when having a German surname and an accent to go with it often worked against you. So, the Kantuschers changed their name to something English sounding.

Immigrants are exceptional people when you think about it. They are but a tiny minority of every nation they come from. They are the ones who would not tolerate deplorable conditions and wanted something better for themselves and their children. They believed in themselves and were hoping their abilities and willingness to work their tails off would allow them to succeed in a place which often was not that welcoming.

My thinking is that if you dislike living in an extraordinary country whose immigrant origins and ancestry helped make it what it is, in my opinion, maybe you should ask yourself how great a fit you are for the USA.

Sincerely yours,

Gary F. Kent

Albion

Editor:

Recently, Assemblyman Steve Hawley voiced his opposition to a 2-plus billion dollar aid package. I posted this on Facebook and immediately an onslaught of replies came forward, claiming racism was at work.

For the sake of clarity, can we keep the word racism out of this narrative. This has become one of the most overused and abused words – becoming the catchall for any opinion that strays from the liberal agenda.

The safety of our citizens and country should be our number one concern as the border crisis continues to pose atrocities for the immigrants coming over. Let’s begin by looking at the many unaccompanied minors being dumped off.

This week I happened to witness a horrifying image of two small children being dropped off over the wall. Many people do not realize that two-thirds of the migrants are being abducted, robbed, extorted and tortured.

The Administration doesn’t want that to be in the limelight, but that’s what’s happening. The southern border is now permeable, which means an open invitation to the cartels with drugs, gun smuggling and human trafficking. There is no compassion here to anyone when these catastrophes prevail.

It is insane to bombard our country with surges such as this, when we are facing calamities of our own. High unemployment, the opioid crisis, and crime are at all-time highs. Did anyone in the powers to be think there may be a better way to bring migrants in; so their influx would run parallel to when a better fiscal outlook in America took place? I don’t think so.

It appears to me, the surge is the fault of poor planning.  Who is suffering? Everyone. There is no singling out here of various racial groups who are culturally different or their achievement level. No one is looking down on these people who hope for a better tomorrow. But when one group is prioritized over another, then racism is in its glory.

Our present fiscal scene is problematic and until that clears up, someone with an ounce of sanity needs to take a long hard look at the truth.

Mary Mager

Fairport, a former Albion resident

Editor:

It has been a year of reflection for each of us as individuals as we have negotiated a year impacted by Covid-19. Reflection and discernment have also been required of the many organizations in our Orleans County community that serve our citizens.

In some respects, it has been an exhausting year but we, Supportive Care of Orleans (formerly known as Hospice of Orleans, Inc.), have emerged stronger in many ways.  We have developed new tools, relied on our strengths and investigated ways we can improve and increase services to the community. With this in mind, the Supportive Care of Orleans Board of Directors will be sharing regular updates over the next few months to reminisce about our history, honor our present, and celebrate an exciting future.

PAST

In 1988, a small group of Orleans County residents, notable among them, Mary Janet Sahukar and Mary Anne Fischer, identified a need in the community to provide support and services to persons diagnosed with a life-limiting illness.

Desiring to provide hope, love and peace to people with terminal illness, People Promoting Hospice was born in 1989. A few years later when the organization became certified by the NYS Department of Health, the name changed to Hospice of Orleans, Inc.

Initially, the many, varied services were primarily provided in the patients’ homes until the Martin-Linsin Residence was opened in December 2012.  The Residence, only one of twelve free standing hospice residence facilities in New York State, can be home to eight patients.

PRESENT

This past several years have seen a significant increase in the number of people seeking services from Hospice. With services offered along a continuum of care from the Transitions Program to Supportive Care to Hospice, the Board of Directors made the bold and exciting decision to rebrand Hospice of Orleans to more accurately reflect the wide range of programs offered.

Now known as Supportive Care of Orleans, our goals are to serve a minimum of 16 patients in their homes or other community locations and eight patients in the Martin-Linsin Residence. To ensure the organization provides exceptional care to our patients, we currently employ 40 full-time, part-time, and per diem employees and contracted medical professionals and administrative staff.

As we continue to grow, we have been challenged to recruit registered nurses to provide care to our patients.  To help meet this need we have established a relationship with Rochester Regional Health – Lifetime Care Hospice who is currently providing SCO with several outstanding clinical staff.

FUTURE

The Covid pandemic has posed many challenges to SCO and health care providers throughout the country. With a shortage of available clinical staff, SCO has been challenged to fully expand our programs and the number of patients served at the rate we feel would fully benefit the community.

The Board of Directors is looking toward the successes of Rochester Regional Health – Lifetime Care Hospice to potentially expand our relationship with this top-notch organization. We believe that an expanded partnership may assist SCO with fully meeting our goals of increased patient care and additional programs for the Orleans County community. We are exploring the possibility of further leveraging Rochester Regional’s training programs, their expertise in Palliative care, and their network of specialists.

As you may be aware, we are also in the process of hiring a new CEO / Hospice Administrator. The organization will be welcoming Elisa Chambrey to the Supportive Care of Orleans team.  She is the current Executive Director for The Highlands at Pittsford.  We have been fortunate to have the exceptional leadership of Kellie Spychalski for the past four years.

Kellie, and her husband Ron, are making a move to Arizona to be closer to their youngest son and enjoy the opportunities the warm weather and sunshine offer. The Board of Directors extends our heartfelt gratitude to Kellie for all she has done for the organization and the community. The Board and staff wish Kellie and her family the best of luck as they embark on this new journey.

The Board of Directors would like to publicly thank our staff for shepherding us through this very difficult year. Their dedication, professionalism, and care of our patients is unsurpassed.  We intend to keep the community informed of our progress as we invite our more than 150 volunteers back into the organization once our medical director, Dr. Bill Wnuk, feels that it is safe and prudent to do so.

The Board would also like to thank our community partners, volunteers and generous donors for the ongoing support of Supportive Care of Orleans.

For more information about the many services offered by Supportive Care of Orleans, community members, physicians, clergy, and others should contact the office at 585-589-0809 or visit the website at www.supportivecareorleans.org.

Respectfully,

Board of Directors – Supportive Care of Orleans

Editor:

I was enjoying a typical Friday morning with my coffee and ritualistic routine: the stock page, weather, Drudge, followed by the morning news and a quick catching-up on local events.  Then it started.

A worrisome uneasiness followed by a growing sense of dread, palpitations, fatigue, libido crash, lethargy – culminating in a frightening inability to focus, wild paranoia and finally … the worst case of the shakes in years!

Already out of control, my symptoms quickly escalated to utter & absolute panic, nausea, respiratory distress and a feeling I was on the edge of passing out.

I mean, what the heck is going on here, what could be causing this??? Reefer madness? A possible overdose of pot-laced baked goods? Police custody?  Nope. Just another fringe opine in the Hub from “Mr. Chairman” bashing what will soon be perfectly good law-abiding stoners.

I thought conservatives believe that more freedom is a good thing? So much for the party of less government, personal liberty and personal responsibility.

I guess when it comes to conservatives it just depends on exactly who’s getting that freedom.

Or not.

Tom Graham

Rochester

Albion High School ’78

Editor:

I am trying to understand Matt Ballard’s point of view in his last letter. Election laws were unconstitutionally changed during the 2020 elections.

States are passing legislation to restore election integrity removed during the pandemic. So now it is racist to have some security in the election process. Please read the bill before casting someone as a racist.

Mr. Ballard is involved in higher education. Is this the type of guidance you want to receive from an educator?

Ed Urbanik

Lyndonville

Editor:

The only reason cannabis is a gateway drug is because it’s illegal. Giving people a safe option to buy cannabis from a dispensary will decrease black market activity.

This will lead to less people progressing to harder drugs.  I’ve seen it, I’ve lived it and will say cannabis is extremely effective at keeping people off opiates.

If Republicans want to tackle the opiate crisis, they should look toward cannabis as a tool for harm reduction.

States that have implemented medical marijuana laws have seen a 5.88% lower rate of opioid prescribing, and when they implemented recreational marijuana laws, there was a 6.38% reduction in opiate prescribing. Used in combination with opioid pain medications, marijuana can lower opioid side-effects, cravings and withdrawal severity as well as enhance the analgesic effects of opioids, thereby allowing for lower doses and less risk of overdose.

I don’t believe government should legislate morality when it comes to what adults choose to do with their own bodies.

Greg McCarthy

Medina

Editor:

“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it” is a quote often attributed to George Santayana, among others.

It has become a rallying cry of the right as conservatives across the country push back against the removal of Confederate statues throughout the South. They believe that these monuments are a true testament to “heritage, not hate” and provide a necessary historical perspective since “you can’t change history just because you don’t like it.”

With the recent passing of SB 202 in Georgia, conservatives are doing just that – changing history because they do not like it. Built upon the fallacy that the 2020 election was riddled with widespread voter fraud, the GOP in Georgia ensured that the next Donald Trump can find the necessary number of votes to maintain conservative control of the political field. This law is the truest demonstration of repeating the past.

History textbooks are littered with the “Lost Cause” narrative constructed in the wake of the Civil War. The heinous violence and exhaustive oppression carried out during Reconstruction is something that remains absent from grade-school curricula. Instead, we are repeatedly fed lies about carpetbaggers and opportunistic Northerners who traveled south to carry out further disruption of southern life after an unjust war. Little information is covered that describes widespread militant violence carried about by the Ku Klux Klan, the refusal of Southern governments to seat duly elected African American representatives, and ongoing efforts to subvert the 14th Amendment by imprisoning Blacks for trumped up crimes.

All of this brought to mind the popular narrative around Rufus Brown Bullock, an Albion native and one-time governor of Georgia. An opportunistic Northerner who travelled south before the Civil War, he accepted a commission as a Lieutenant Colonel with the Confederacy in addition to owning slaves for a brief period of time during the War. At the conclusion of hostilities, he pursued politics in an effort to further his financial interests with post-war railroad and telegraph infrastructure projects.

Locally, Bullock is lauded for his efforts to support racial equality in post-war Georgia. After all, when the “Original 33” Black members of the Georgia General Assembly were expelled in 1868, Bullock led the charge to reinstate federal military control in Georgia. Amidst rampant violence carried out by paramilitary organizations like the Ku Klux Klan, he pleaded for assistance from President Grant. Instead, the federal government was too preoccupied with the systematic destruction of Native Americans in the west to end lynching in the South.

What is often removed from this story is that Bullock was a longstanding proponent of convict leasing. Legislation outlawing vagrancy targeted previously enslaved Blacks who had no home or land of their own, placing them in prisons, and skirting the 14th Amendment. Those convicts were leased to private entities for pennies on the dollar and their slave labor used on railroad projects. Bullock understood that this reduced the cost incurred by the state to house prisoners and furthered financial interests in the development of railroads throughout Georgia. Despite his actions aimed at ensuring racial equality, under the surface his actions were no different from Southern politicians interested in continuing slavery at any cost.

Many right-leaning American voters are agreeable to the modern equivalent to literacy tests and poll taxes – i.e. voter ID laws. Pulling up an example of a 19th century literacy test shows that few would be able to answer such deliberately confusing questions. White voters had the added benefit of grandfather clauses to avoid the likelihood that they would be denied the right to participate in elections.

Political analysts have equated SB 202 to modern day Jim Crow legislation aimed at suppressing non-white voters. In truth, Georgia’s GOP is digging deep into a bag of old tricks. Our democracy is under threat once again and we must remain vigilant to ensure that the past does not, once again, repeat itself.

Matt Ballard

Statesville, NC (formerly Clarendon, NY)

Editor:

Citizens of Barre do not want turbines. Oligarchy does. Oligarchies are not popular but are powerful in local government.

Peons who will not receive money for turbines are being forced to swallow desires of the elite. Once again, more Town of Barre time is spent bending over then meeting actual wanted citizens’ needs.

Since farmers pay less property taxes than other residents, perhaps others payers can get results that are useful.

Kris Welles

Barre

Editor:

The Orleans County Conservative Party opposes the legalization of marijuana. This will not end well for the people of our state.

There will be an increase of minor participation. There will be a significant human cost. All the failed hypocritical flip-flopper Governor Cuomo and far left wing State Legislature see is dollar signs to feed their out-of-control spending practices and green tyranny.

The strains of pot today are super strong and can make people very paranoid, even cause mental damage. If cooked and ingested in improper doses can cause an overdose and loss of control of breathing and consciousness, maybe even behind the wheel.

It lowers the fertility and sperm count in males. It lowers ambition. There will be a significant rise in black market sales to evade taxes and for fear of being known as a pot consumer. This will lead to more people progressing to use harder drugs with a high cost to society in crime and the death of loved ones destroying families to the core left to cope.

For every tax dollar the state gets it loses 10 in society, according to SAM-smart approaches to marijuana. The cost to treat the future addictions will be more than they will take in. The idea that the mindless progressive government of NY is going into the drug dealing business ought to scare reasonable people to the core. What could possibly go wrong?

The DA and local law enforcement are right about this one. Thank you Republican state representatives for voting against this. Drugs and alcohol are no good and one is better off not ever using them.

Paul Lauricella

Orleans County Conservative Party Chairman