Deputy and cow have ‘moo’ving experience
Editor:
It was the morning of the Dairy Fest, a beautiful sunny morning, and we were on our way into Springville for an early breakfast before attending our granddaughter’s participation in an Irish Dance competition in Hamburg, and hopefully returning in time for the big parade.
We had just rounded a slight curve on a little hill on Route 39, when we spotted the sheriff patrol car stopped on the opposite shoulder, pointed east. The deputy was standing in front of the car, facing the cow. It seemed the cow was less impressed by the officer’s uniform than the officer was by the cow’s large black and white holstein-ness.
The images were brief and fleeting as we passed the encounter, but led one to speculate. Perhaps the deputy began his day preparing himself mentally for the possibility of facing down a criminal, risking his life in his role to protect and serve, but never even considering the possibility of facing down a cow.
Perhaps the cow began her day thinking how cool it would be to breach the fence and find out if the grass really was greener on the other side. Maybe it would even be greener still on the other side of the road.
I believe Mark Twain once said that a man can find out just how important he is by trying to give orders to someone else’s dog. How humiliating indeed it must have been for that poor deputy, not just having his authority challenged, but simply ignored by a bovine.
I assume the cow probably never encountered a sheriff’s deputy before. Quite possibly the deputy never encountered a disrespectful cow before either. Perhaps he grew up in a suburb somewhere and never took a course on domestic animal psychology. Maybe he was absent on the day cow wrangling was taught in Deputy School.
I really don’t know how that stand-off ended, but I hope successfully, and without further undue humiliation for either deputy or cow.
Paul Lawton
Springville
Concord Historical Sociey has successful pie social
Editor:
The Concord Historical society would like to thank the community for the overwhelming success of their pie social held at the East Concord Community Church on June 3 to honor the history of East Concord. Despite the cool weather, many people enjoyed the exhibits, purchased the pies by the whole or slice, and the church was filled for the program at night:
Special thanks go to the following:
Members of the Society and the East Concord community for their donations of delicious homemade pies; Martha Miller, Elsie Smith, Wilma Schaus, Marlene Ziecker and Joe Krezmien for sharing their East Concord memories and memorabilia; Gertrude Forde for her inspiration; Bob Lux, caretaker of the church, for all his help; our President Don Orton and Shirley for all their work and support.
Also, our Vice President Jeanne Fornes for the sign; Sally Joe Harris for her music; Alice Arlow for letting us share her day; the East Concord Community Church for letting us use their facilities; Wal-Mart, Tops, Tim Hortons and the Fireside Inn for their generous donations.
Above all, thank you Ed Byreiter and Christine for letting the Society tour your beautiful home, the former East Concord two room schoolhouse, and our own Margaret Mayerat for your humorous and informative presentation on the history of East Concord.
What a wonderful community we have.
Concord Historical Society
Jane Neureuther
East Concord
Wind turbines are unhealthy and unsafe
Editor:
I had to read Mitchell Law’s recent article twice before I could believe my eyes. Names? Logos? The residents of Ashford, Machias, and Yorkshire are faced with the consequences of commercial wind power development across their towns and that’s what’s concerning them? The ‘liaison’ group calling themselves START claims “their goal is to educate the public about windmills and to give people a say.” Well, the first thing they might want to do is refer to the machines properly as industrial wind turbines. On June 3, a wind developer in Illinois asked to be allowed to start installing 500’ towers in projects in that state, signaling another ‘growth spurt’ in the industry. That’s the height of the HSBC Building in downtown Buffalo, the city’s only true skyscraper. I don’t know of any wind ‘mills’ that look like that.
Even in the face of scandal and escalating opposition, wind developers hope that small-town locals are still unaware and as such, will not realize the promises and claims they make are routinely broken. “Our turbines are safe. Our turbines are quiet. The turbines will bring prosperity. They won’t lower your property values or affect your ability to sell. They won’t interfere with your TV. They won’t harm or scare wildlife. Our turbines cast shadows and flicker for only a few minutes a day. You won’t notice. And if you do, here’s a phone number to report any problems.”
START needs to stop worrying about catch-phrases and spend more time educating themselves so they can ‘educate the public,’ if that is indeed their purpose. They must insure the residents are aware that since February, over $10 million in liens have been filed against NY State landowners doing business with financially unstable wind power companies. They should tell them that even since the NY state attorney general’s office conducted an investigation into allegedly corrupt business activities by wind companies and devised a code of ethics as a result, it’s not compulsory and few have signed on. Local citizens should know that in states all across the US and beyond that have had wind projects recently completed in rural-residential areas, there are now major problems. Right here in NY alone, residents have gone on record in Cohocton, Sheldon, Wethersfield, Bliss, and the Tug Hill region stating numerous impacts, often siting flicker and low-frequency noise, and in March in Altoona, a new turbine literally exploded in high winds sending debris sailing over a quarter of a mile away. Some homes have been sold at great losses, some abandoned. In Pubnico Point, Nova Scotia, Daniel d’Entremont, his wife, and eight kids, left the home they built 20 years ago on family land because after one year of living within 1,500 feet of a 1.5 MW wind turbine, the family’s health was suffering beyond an acceptable level due to sleep deprivation and stress, and a buyer for the property could not be found.
In addition to the financial, health and safety risks, there’s also this: There is not one documented piece of evidence anywhere in the world that proves wind power reduces co2 emissions. On Earth Day, President Obama suggested that in Denmark, wind is a success story. But the fact is they’ve had to use 50 percent more coal-generated electricity to cover it’s power gaps caused by wind energy, resulting in a 36 percent increase in carbon emissions! They’ve never closed a fossil fuel plant, they’ve lost 2.2 jobs for every ‘green’ one they’ve gained, and they have the highest electric rates in all of Europe, according to Canada’s National Post.
It’s pretty clear that START has no intentions of providing this kind of information to the residents of Yorkshire, Machias, and Ashford. Instead they will probably present the glossy brochures and literature put out by the wind industry and hope that all accept it at face value. But if the residents are SMART, they will listen when folks like Nadja Laska of Sheldon tells a Batavia news reporter that the $600 annual reduction in taxes isn’t worth it. “It’s not about money for me. It’s about living my quiet, peaceful, humble life. That’s what I want. My quality of life.”
Sue Sliwinski
Sardinia
Fleckenstein family appreciates generosity of the community
Editor:
We would like to express our gratitude and appreciation to all those who helped with Joel’s Benefit.
The outpouring of love and support in this community is amazing. Thank you to all who donated cans, money, baskets, gift certificates, time and music.
A very special thank you to Sheila Solomon, Lenore Rehrauer, Jessie Connors and the Springville High School — you did a great job putting everything together, Paster Stan and Dawn Handzlik and our church family at The Assembly of God Church in Springville, the Springville Elementary School and the Springville Fire Department.
Thank you for your continued prayers and support!
The Fleckenstein Family
Springville
Erie Co. highway department was careless on Cattaraugus Road
Editor:
I am writing this letter to express my extreme disappointment in the careless actions of the Erie County Highway Department, which dug the ditches on Cattaraugus Road recently.
When I walked down the driveway to look at the work they had done, my heart was broken. They had almost completely destroyed the flower bed by my mailbox.
Never before has the highway department disturbed my flower beds when they dug the ditch, and I do not understand why they could not have notified me and I would have moved the plants myself.
I also was not happy with the way I was treated by Philip Drozd when I went to speak to him. Mr. Drozd should show more respect to citizens like myself who are taxpayers and contributing members of the community, as I have been for over 50 years.
My flowers and my trust in the Erie County Highway Department has been destroyed.
Virginia Starkweather
Springville
A big thanks to friendly customers
Editor:
This letter is to my friends and customers at the Springville Gulf Gas Station. I want to thank them all for their kindness and support while I was going through a hard time. Also for being so friendly and becoming my friends over the period of a year and a few months while I worked there.
Although I no longer work there, I hope to see you around town.
I’m sorry I’m not there anymore to make your days brighter and more cheerful.
Thank you all from my heart,
Adam Snyder
Springville
Our health care system is a mess
Editor:
What a mess our health care system is. It is not wonder why. For far too long it has been based on the corporate model. Corporate officers are legally bound to maximize profit. There is no room for benevolence in the system. Long gone is the day of the kind country doctor making his rounds, with his willingness to accept what people could give or pay. It has grown into an obscene, corporate exploitationist fleecing of this nation. We spend twice as much of our gross domestic product on health care as the rest of the civilized world and leave 50 million of our neighbors and relatives with no health care, while other nations cover everyone.
As we blindly insist on choice, what a lousy choice we are making. Misleading advertisements scare people with the line, “I don’t want the government standing between me and my doctor.” Medicare is light years better than nothing, and guess what folks, we’ve already got corporate profit-mongers standing between us and our doctors anyway.
As long as we let the greedy manage the care of our sick and injured, they will bleed us dry. For a long time now, the leading cause of personal bankruptcy is medical bills. I think we are all caught in the exploitationists’ web. We need to view health care as a vital public service and remove the exploitation from the system. Corporate capitalism has no room for humanity but always seems to generate huge bonuses. I realize we can’t separate profit from injury and illness entirely, but we must attempt to civilize the system.
Eric Anderson
Delevan