Letters to the Editor: Seniors, take action!

Laurel

Seniors, take action!

This is a call to all seniors: Make sure that not only you, but all your friends and relatives, get out to vote. It’s fun — and extra support is always a good idea.

Trump is desperately trying to block us from voting, so we must have ways to ensure that we can get to the polls safely to exercise our most precious democratic right.

Seniors are old, bold — and they vote. Now, more than ever, we need that vote. Please realize how important the senior vote is. It is the largest voting bloc and, with that, we have to get every senior out to vote, either by mail or at the polls.

It is suggested that we vote by mail (double-check your ballot and mail it early!) or by early voting at the polls, as they should be safe.

Whoever thought we would be saying that we had to worry about how to vote, or that write-in ballots would in some way be destroyed? This vote is the best chance we have to restore our democracy.

If you encounter problems at the polls, call 866–OUR-VOTE if you see anything improper.

Charles Gueli

Wading River

Visiting angels

On Aug. 23 around 11:30 while driving through the intersection of North Wading River Road and Route 25A I experienced a medical emergency.

I would like to thank the many angels that came to my assistance. Your quick decisions to assist a stranger is a testament to your willingness to share God’s love. Your unselfish actions not only saved my life but possibly the lives of many others.

I wish that I had the opportunity to thank you individually. But I am confident that those who need to know are reading this now.

Fred Jenkins

Calverton

Who are we protecting?

In support of police cooperating with deporting those who came across our border during the last administration. These individuals have the opportunity to take advantage of a program with financial and airline tickets.

ICE, for one, in many ways is looked upon as illegal yet they are charged with enforcing the law, as are our police.
We are terrified at what is becoming of [the] country. We hear of atrocities, murders, rapes, child abuse, vehicle accidents committed by those who are not committed to our ideals and laws.

We should encourage cooperation.

Richard Romanski

Cutchogue

Corporate raiders?

Land developers’ faces are changing, as are the ways land-use projects are presented to, and will change, our town. While individual property owners have not disappeared, they are being eclipsed by legal “persons.”

Currently the North Fork is witnessing two unprecedented corporate strategies in action: the vast holdings of billionaire Stefan Soloviev and the 16 acres of 2340 Ackerly Pond LLC.

For roughly a decade, Mr. Soloviev used his ex-wife as the public, personal face of Soloviev Group Crossroads AG ventures on the North Fork. She presented the local land buys as small potatoes in the context of its extensive holdings and claimed she could “tone down” her ex-husband’s ideas to fit the North Fork. The act was exposed as a calculated strategy when Mr. Soloviev declared himself a pure “land trader.”

Since last year, 2340 Ackerly Pond LLC has been hiding behind NYU undergraduate Grant Callahan. He introduced the proposed factory farm as a father-son operation, but continues to withhold any information on who owns the company. The father figure has not formally appeared on the record.

Despite a complete lack of experience, Mr. Callahan is taking credit for stewardship of our local agricultural heritage in a humane and regenerative direction by proposing an innovative, ecological, sustainable farm. But the grandiose plan appears more likely to become an unsustainable environmental disaster. He has fluently greenwashed the proposed farm as organic and humane, while avoiding specific details, and he is carefully evading making promises that could be enforceable.

The fantasy egg farm hit a wall when trees were cut and soil was bulldozed after the limited permission from the Planning Board ended, and construction of chicken trailers started without required Planning Board approvals. Southold Town issued a stop-work order. But the expectation is that work will resume and there is little hope that the current incomplete and confusing plans can be revised in this application to be acceptable.

Southold deserves transparency, not public relations shields. Our town boards and officials and, yes, even civic associations must find ways to see past ostensible representatives to ensure that the actual corporate backers are strictly accountable to our community standards.

Benja Schwartz

Peconic

Service fees

Did you know a service fee of at least $3 applies when you pay by credit card for one of Southold Town’s recreation department programs? Why?

I have asked this before, because when you pay for a program at Southold Free Library or any of the other libraries in town, there is no additional fee. Why here?

I could avoid this fee by paying in person by check; however, the demand for these classes is so great that I would probably be too late to register.

I think the town could choose another collection system and avoid the fee, just as the libraries and many retail establishments have.
And why not?

Joel Reitman

Southold

Emergency phone problems

The lack of cellphone service is putting us in danger.

There are people in charge of budgeting what we need on the North Fork, in the form of anything from public services to paved roads. Why are our politicians not getting us the basic necessity of cellphone service?

From Greenport all the way to Riverhead there are repeated dead zones where we can’t make a call even in an emergency.
What will it take to get our public officials off their butts to help us stay safe in the event we need to do something as simple as make a phone call?

FOIA requests for budgets are already placed and it’s time for people like me to go through it to trim the fat. I think the option of wasteful programs vs. your 10-year-old making a 911 call after falling off a bike needs to be brought up now, before our November election.

Raul Duke

Cutchogue

Facts vs. feelings

Biden’s first 19 months in office: The inflation rate was 8.75% and rising. Trump’s first 19 months: It’s 3.5% and falling. Biden raised the CPI by 21% during his four years. So far during this Trump’s administration, CPI is at 4.5%.

The math is the math. Your emotions are your own. Prices rarely come down once established by the market. What we are feeling is the Biden increase, not the Trump decrease.

Federal taxes rates have been lowered and reductions in taxes on tips, overtime and Social Security are now in place along with higher SALT deductions. If only state and local government would follow suit.

This Congress has spent less than the last Congress. When the money supply and oil prices are lowered the expected Federal Reserve inflation rate will probably be below their expectations of 2%.

We have only to look at the high inflation of the late 1970s and the time it took the Reagan administration to bring it under control. Stay the course, people; the present policies are working. Even though you are not feeling it as yet.

Bob Bittner