Give Lady Liberty statue due respect
On a recent evening while driving northeast on Erie Boulevard, I could not help but to notice the statues of Charles Steinmetz, Thomas Edison and soon-to-be-included George Westinghouse.
All are visibly illuminated and each pedestal bearing a plaque explaining their contribution to this area and America. When you compare the prominence of their location to the relocation of the Statue of Liberty replica from Liberty Park to the corner of Erie Boulevard and Union Street, the differences are striking.
Lady Liberty is not illuminated, is minimally visible at best, and it doesn’t bear the Boy Scout plaque that was attached to her pedestal in Liberty Park.
There are no accoutrements here whatsoever.
The total lack of respect and dignity that this iconic symbol of our country deserves is disgraceful.
The representatives of the city of Schenectady should be embarrassed and ashamed of themselves for allowing this travesty.
Where is the patriotism here? Where are our common values?
It’s very sad.
Ralph Pidgeon
Glenville
Make supervisor’s salary competitive
I am writing in support of the Niskayuna supervisor’s pay increase in the proposed budget, and I agree with several of the Town Board members who agree with increasing the salary to bring it more in range with the duties of the position.
The Gazette’s editorial board is entitled to object to the increase, but note that these editors have no specialty training in municipal government or organizational management.
To assert that the proposed $4,700 pay increase is excessive is overstated.
What they fail to note is that the supervisor’s salary of $53,800 is out of market and not commensurate with the responsibilities of the position.
The supervisor is the chief executive officer of a $27 million municipal corporation with approximately 150 full time staff.
The supervisor shouldn’t have to donate time to execute the duties of their position, any more than we expect police, highway staff or other municipal employees to donate their time.
We expect our local political officials to keep regular office hours, be available nights and weekends to the public and at times even endure personal attacks and character assassination.
Today’s noxious political climate has unfortunately found a place here in Niskayuna.
If we want high-quality candidates to accept these conditions of employment and have them run for office, it’s time for us to finally admit that the supervisor’s salary is not competitive.
We need to be honest and correct the supervisor’s salary.
Michael Skrebutenas
Niskayuna
Rules for commenting:
The Gazette will not tolerate name-calling; profanity, threats; accusations of racism, mental illness or intoxication; spreading of false or misleading information; libel or other inappropriate language in any form, and readers may not make any such comments about or directly to specific individuals.
Readers who violate the policy will be warned and then banned.
Election Letters:
The deadline for letters related to the November 8, 2022, general election is 5 p.m. Friday, October 28, 2022.
Election-related letters are limited to 200 words.
Letters from candidates are not accepted, nor are letters that are part of a coordinated writing campaign.
Categories: Letters to the Editor, Opinion, Opinion
11 Comments
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
Lady liberty is a symbol that reflects the leadership role that the United States plays to the world reading that senator Mccarthy pledges to cut US support for Ukraine against the terrorist Russian state and in support of autocrat Putin simply disgusts me it reflects a the thought process of a corrupt third world leader who does not belong in a leadership position in Congress
I’m terrified of McCarthy’s allegiance to 45 when he KNOWS it’s all a lie, yet puts his own ambitions ahead of our country.
The gop no longer stand for freedom after bowing down to dictator tRump, therefore does NOT deserve a leadership position. He’s so weak!
Whats the “end game” of this for the United States? How long does it remain a proxy war and will it escalate? Then what? Is this another stalemate forever war that the U.S. continues to fund? Will it escalate to nuclear war? Should Putin be allowed to keep Crimea? Tough questions to a tough situation that the U.S. needs to tread lightly on. We have a knack of involving ourselves in never ending wars and here we are again.
This is not a “proxy war”. This as a NATO action in defense of itself. One can debate whether Putin’s justified in feeling offended and betrayed by NATO, but at this minute NATO is defending a sovereign nation against a big Russian/Putin lie; that somehow Ukraine (including Crimea) is Russian and that they’re terrorists, and that Russia’s justified in their obscene attack.
Questions about an “end game”, or wondering how long it lasts, and whether it escalates are rhetorical since that’s in Putin’s hands. But it’ll be a Pyrrhic effort.
NATO is drawn into this out of necessity and in the interest of global security. And it really sucks.
NATO has largely stepped up to the plate on this one Putin is looking for the weak link which at this point appears to be Turkey and Hungary but the benefits of membership in the alliance appears to be outweighing the temptation Putins offering and the reality of possibly becoming the next Ukraine. Let’s be thankful the threat to withdraw the US from the alliance was not carried out.ive been wondering how Putin got his hands on those Iranian drones so fast did he get some documents on their nuclear program somewhere to use as leverage?
Thank you, Ralph Pidgeon, for demanding respect for Lady Liberty’s replica. I saw Mayor McCarthy, who is totally responsible for the disgrace of the Lady in Exile, at the unveiling of the base of the Westinghouse statue two weeks ago. My message to him: “This shows you do know how to treat a statue with respect. After three years the Lady has no signage or plaque, no lighting, no flowerbed.”
Eleven months ago City Council passed a resolution unanimously recommending that Lady Liberty be returned to Liberty/Gateway Park, as was specifically required in the Gateway Plaza Comprehensive Plan, which the Council approved and the Mayor signed in 2013.. The resolution got no public response from the Mayor.
“Mr. Veteran” Jim Wilson, who died at 94 last week, wrote at least 8 letters to the Editor about sending Lady Liberty Home. He also led re-dedication ceremonies of the Statue for many years at Liberty Park. Maybe the Mayor could honor Jim Wilson, who was named a Patroon in 2003, by finally obeying the Plan and giving some grace and gravitas to Gateway Plaza. [see https://tinyurl.com/Letters4Lady for Letters by Jim and many others]
Only returning Her to Liberty Park would give Lady Liberty and the values the statue represents, James A. Wilson, the public, and the City’s planning process due respect.
No surprise a political ally would support the selfish raise proposed by Puccioni, but it is a surprise that it would come from a committee member…an elected position…smacks of quid pro quo, smells really bad! Let the voters decide with a public referendum next November, not a small, extreme faction.
No need to spend thousands of taxpayer funding setting up a public referendum for a small proposed salary increase when there already is a referendum next November – it’s called the supervisor’s reelection bid.
Whoville, I don’t think it would be that expensive, needs to be a focused point and not hidden or forgotten about…the thousands of taxpayers $$$’s were spent on her new office furniture, paint and curtains…BTW, anyone seen the very nice, historic “old” furniture or dare I ask?
You don’t need a special election. The candidate states that this is one of the goals during the campaign. . If you don’t want the raise you vote her out. I agree with Leon that there should be disclosure if you are a Democrat Committee Person since the person is a political supporter of the Supervisor
Also she wants more than $4700. She wants $100000 plus.