Include Rotterdam’s brush fee in our taxes
Regarding brush fee and leaf pickup: Rotterdam taxes should pay for the pickup.
We have no street lights. We have no sidewalks. We have no sewers.
The cost of the bags — $.50 times hundreds — going to the dumps.
Having a vacuum truck would do the job, saving the taxpayers money. All area townships have this system.
Lawrence Murtagh
Rotterdam
Cut down Christmas displays to save Earth
So, now that 98 percent of our scientists say we are in human-caused global warming, we need to start doing something about it.
The Christmas holidays are fast approaching, and it’s time to start thinking about decorating our homes, and, as many do, our lawns. Every year, I notice more and more lighted outdoor displays that are really “over the top.”
Starting this year, let’s all cut back on these displays, for the sake of our home, the Earth. The amount of electricity that is used in these displays really boggles the mind. Less is more: Candles in the windows and a few lights around the front door and porch columns make for a very elegant display. Add a little greenery and it’s quite festive. All those blow-up figures littering the lawn lead one to think of Disneyland.
Secondly, let’s cut back on the number of days we light up these displays: two weeks before Christmas and one week after ought to be sufficient. China has recently surpassed us in fossil fuel emissions overall. However, per capita, that is, for each person, Americans are far and away ahead in their consumption of fossil fuels, with their resulting emissions of greenhouse gasses.
So please, let’s all have conservative Christmases from now on.
Jahnn Swanker-Gibson
Johnstown
Our libraries should be open on holidays
As I pause to remember the sacrifices made by our people in uniform then and now, I was thinking how much we owe them; not just our physical freedom, which is so important, but also our cultural and intellectual freedoms.
Wouldn’t it have been appropriate for the residents of Schenectady County to enjoy the benefits of our great library system, which have been ensured by the years of those sacrifices by those same veterans? Instead, our libraries were closed, as they were on Election Day, Columbus Day and other minor holidays. On those days — especially when schools and some businesses are closed — a great place to be would be in our free libraries.
Schenectady County labor contracts, which are “one-size-fits-all,” make library staffs adhere to the same schedules as all the other county departments. Libraries are different. Their offerings should be available when other agencies and schools are not open. Programs befitting the specific occasion can be developed for all ages.
It’s about time we started thinking of the library as the social, cultural and intellectual place that it is. Our veterans, who fought to preserve our library freedoms, would be proud.
John Karl
Niskayuna
Dr. Eugene Drago left a memorable legacy
I’m saddened by the loss of Dr. Eugene Drago. I was a nurse at St. Clare’s for 20 years and I live with the great memories there.
Doc was so good to his patients. But behind the scenes, he was a great mentor, teacher, friend and advocate for us. We only needed to ask for anything and he was there, personally or professionally. His laugh was infectious. He respected our professional assessments and trusted us with his patients,
They don’t make physicians like him any more. He’s greatly missed.
Dianne Chagnon Burns
Scotia
Better management needed of pine forest
Re Nov. 4 article, “Kinns Road forest set for some thinning”: I was interested in your recent story about the problems at the Saratoga County Kinns Road forest in Clifton Park, since many years ago when I worked down there, I suggested to the town conservation committee that the area would need some active forest management.
As expected, tree huggers there apparently prevailed over science, and they now have a pine forest that is stagnant, dying and decaying and, except for a few woodpeckers, a biological desert as wildlife habitat.
This condition is predictable in a red pine plantation. (I’m a tree hugger myself in many circumstances, but not this one.)
Removing the dead trees won’t do anything but prolong the dying of the remaining trees. What is needed there is about a 30 percent cut of the standing timber to open up the forest to sunlight and get the remaining trees growing again and regeneration growing on the ground. This probably should have been done 20 years ago.
Maybe County Planning Director Jason Kemper should take the interested parties around to a couple county properties that have been selectively cut in the past and show them the vigorous and growing pine forests that have resulted, as well as being good for wildlife.
There are no doubt other such locations around, but in this area there are a couple just off Exit 17 of the Northway. They aren’t the decadent forest as seen on Kinns Road.
Donald Wharton
South Glens Falls
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Letters to the Editor Wednesday, March 29 - Three, from readers in Niskayuna- Letters to the Editor Tuesday, March 28 - Five, from readers in Scotia, Glenville, Clifton Park, els...
- Letters to the Editor Monday, March 27 - Two, from readers in Albany and Schenectady
- Letters to the Editor Sunday, March 26 - Three, from readers in Schenectady and Burnt Hills
- Letters to the Editor Friday, March 24 - Two, from readers in Schenectady and Glenville
Categories: Letters to the Editor
