Recent DV graduate running for school board

On Tuesday, May 21, I would be honored to receive your vote in the primary election for Delaware Valley School Board. As a recent DV graduate, I can provide meaningful insight into important topics and issues faced by our student body. Furthermore, I believe that my fresh perspective, vitality and collaborative nature will be an exceptional asset to our district.

My specific policy priorities include:

Improved student-teacher ratio;

Building upon current anti-bullying initiatives;

Expanding availability to school-based mental health and substance abuse services;

Broadening cooperative education opportunities for those electing to pursue a school-to-work transition post-graduation.

In terms of school board governance overall, I want to bolster transparency through increased communication between the school board, taxpayers, parents, teachers and students. As your elected school board official, I will seek first to understand the taxpayers, parents, students and teachers prior to making important decisions. Each perspective is essential and must be taken into consideration for the daily function of our district and to maintain the quality education for which Delaware Valley is known.

A fresh perspective on the board can also help identify any unnecessary expenditures of your tax money and find solutions that don’t sacrifice the integrity of our educational programs. I will pursue funds for educational grant opportunities that will lend to innovative learning experiences for students and staff. I will promote efficiency and efficacy in all aspects of Delaware Valley School District operations.

I admire the dedication and diligence of our current school board members. I am eager to join them to further facilitate policies and programs that are fiscally responsible, provide exceptional educational opportunities for our students and enhance transparency through continuous dialogue.

I look forward to continuing the tradition of DV excellence by serving our community as a member of the Delaware Valley School Board.

John Palmadessa

Dingmans Ferry, PA

What’s with the tiny particulates?

Why Brandi Merolla is now featured in every other article I read, I’m not sure (look out Carol Wingert), but I did find [May 2nd’s] TRR editorial interesting and fact-based—until they over-reached, which is typical.

For a newspaper that says it doesn’t endorse candidates, this early non-endorsement endorsement of the incumbent’s opponent was noteworthy in and of itself. Regarding the compressor, a $20,000,000 hotel is planned right next door, another one is planned for The Chapin Estate, and the Eldred School is now referring to the compressor station as its Messiah (see latest school newsletter), while the TRR continues to use non-contextual science of pollution to scare the community.

I’ve requested many times, but have never been served, a comparison of the ‘tiny particulates’ to a traffic jams at Bethel Woods, or the daily drops and pickups at our schools, especially the one school that doesn’t bus the majority of their kids and has daily traffic jams. What kind of tiny particulates are these environments producing?

It seems that it is not just Donald J. Trump that feels the need to keep the base happy.

Chuck Petersheim

Eldred, NY

‘The downside of the #MeToo movement’

A recent unfortunate experience that I had with a friendship that I tried to develop with a woman brought to mind something that conservative-Republican Fox News host Tucker Carlson writes about in his recent book.

While I disagree with 95% of his conservative-Republican political views, I think he is spot-on correct and accurate when he observes that women of today seem to dislike and distrust men much more so than they did in the past. I attribute a lot of it to the downside of the #MeToo sexual harassment movement. While I was as happy as anyone to see it come onto the scene (as I myself was sexually harassed by a female college professor when I was 25 years old), I believe that an unfortunate result of it has been that a lot more women now believe that no man can be trusted, and they are overly-suspicious of all men, even the good ones, who DO exist and who they really can trust, believe in and have faith in.

P.S. I am a retired college professor of Sociology, Social Work, and Psychology. I taught at West Virginia University and Slippery Rock University.

Stewart B. Epstein

Rochester, NY

Comment on the Wayne County District Attorney’s Race

I served in the Pennsylvania State Police for 36 years and am currently an adjunct professor of Criminal Justice. A majority of my career was in criminal investigation. I have testified in five county courts and three federal district courts. Kathy Martin brags that she has litigated over 12,000 criminal cases and tried 100 jury trials in 26 years. That would be 465 cases a year. Starting with 365 days a year, minus weekends and holidays, it is roughly 465 cases every 246 days. No days off, no vacations, no other cases. The numbers really don’t add up or make sense.

Kathy Martin also advertises that drugs and violet criminals are invading Wayne County. She has been in the DA’s office in Pike and Wayne Counties for several years, so why didn’t she start fighting these criminals when she got here? These ads may seem like good politics, but they cause genuine fear and concern within our communities, especially to our senior citizens, who fear being crime victims.

The question of political party is a valid one. Kathy Martin is a Philadelphia Democrat pretending to be a Wayne County Republican. It is apparent that there is a lot of Democratic money on one side of this race. It actually makes me feel uncomfortable because I have never seen this type of “in your face” campaigning to try and buy Wayne County.

My candidate of choice, AG Howell, is the only qualified candidate for district attorney. He has the compassion that a prosecutor must have to understand the pain of a victim of a crime. He has the caring spirit to comfort the victim throughout the ordeal of investigation and arrest. He has the legal knowledge and talent to protect those in our society who are most vulnerable, especially for our children. AG will bring that caring spirit to those in our community who suffer from addiction and, more importantly, punish those who bring these drugs into our communities.

To my fellow voters in Wayne County: We are not Philadelphia. Experience somewhere else is not experience here. Let’s keep it local. We know AG and he knows us. He is part and parcel of who we all are: friend, neighbor, coach and community. Join me on May 21 in voting to elect AG Howell our next district attorney.

Michael O’Dar Sr.

Honesdale, PA