Another giveaway by the IDA

I recently learned that Sullivan County’s Industrial Development Agency gave Middletown Medical Corp $88,000 in tax abatements for moving its business a couple blocks in Monticello.   

Middletown Medical is a very successful firm that charges handsomely for what it does, and Sullivan County’s desperate health situation will not be abated when several well-paid doctors park their cars a few streets away. Some say the tax abatements allow Middletown Medical to “invest” in new tech. Any new machines and operators will be paid for by the fees Middletown Medical will charge. Who’s kidding whom?   

Five of six Sullivan County IDA board members voted for Middletown Medical’s move. So much for “public servants” guarding the till. (Joe Perrello was the lone dissenter.)

Finally, Middletown Medical now buys full-page color ads in a local paper for new customers. By a rough estimate, those ads have already cost well over $4,000, a good deal as the county gives away our tax money for an already prosperous company’s further profits.   

Bill Duncan 
Woodbourne, NY

Anti-gun actions divisive

The school walkouts and anti-gun marches seem to be backed by a hateful political agenda. Maybe they are based on fear and anger but either way, we the people do need to act against massacres and violence. Why no marches when Obama was president? President Obama only blamed the Republicans and NRA, causing more division. President Trump is actually doing something to protect our children, and I thank God. However, each political party is in a fantasy world, with Republicans thinking we are all moral and qualified to own tactical weapons and side arms. Then Democrats think cultural diversity and education are the answer; meanwhile they push for unlimited abortions, and they think the police and government will protect them. That did not work out so well in the Parkland or Orlando shootings, where the FBI were both involved prior to the massacres.

Let’s look at the solution rather than just more fake news/media hype: our second-amendment gun rights can stay intact by enforcing all the current gun laws and the various checks/balances that are already in place and by further restriction of tactical style rifles such as AR-15s, meanwhile adding concealed-carry reciprocity nationwide. However the main solution to stopping these massacres is Jesus, for God so loved the world that God the Father sent God the Son into the world so that you, I,  whoever believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life. John 3:16.

John “JP” Pasquale
Livingston Manor NY

Jumping the gun

How cruel of the TRR to use a budding spring flower in its masthead last week.  Like changing out your snow tires too early, such actions as these tempt fate—with fate responding with a five-inch snowstorm on April 2.

Charles Petersheim
Eldred, NY