Opinion

My name is Rachel LeVea. I am 17 years old and I am a 12th grade student at G.Ray Bodley High School. Nearly 10 percent of Americans in my age range are already smokers. Furthermore, 5.6 million Americans under age 18 will die early due to a smoking-related illness. On Kick Butts Day, I will declare that I will not be included in either of those statistics.

Last November at the city of Fulton budget public hearing I spoke. I said, “Zero tax increase. I can’t say anything bad about it and it seems to be great, but I will hold off on saying it’s great until next year and see how much you (CC) bond during the year. If you don’t bond anything then I will say it is a great budget” Well it didn’t take long to move what seemed to be great into the classification of “Fake Budgeting.”

Frank Castiglia would have the good people, who read his letters to the editor, believe that he has once again, and single-handedly, uncovered corruption and deceit within county government. Specifically, in his remarks dated February 13, 2017, that I recently read online at OswegoCountyToday.com. I would like to concentrate on the main point that Frank seems to be trying to make; whereby he has done a good job of creating “Fake News” himself, by insinuating an underhanded or shady deal is afoot.

I wonder if the attendees of the CC meeting that applauded the decision by the mayor and CC of the city of Fulton not to pursue the possibility of doing a feasibility study will be applauding with the very big possibility of losing state aid. The mayor has said how much money we could lose in state aid by dissolving. The feasibility study would have only said if dissolving was feasible.

Success…..one can at a time. I am a little behind in getting this thank you out, yet I can assure you that it has not left my thoughts. Life simply caught up after the holidays and I am now able to sit down and completely enjoy these next few minutes. I approached the Tops Supermarket in Fulton and manager Jim Monohan about running a second annual can drive to benefit Catholic Charities and the need for veggies in their holiday baskets.

We all remember that game when we were kids. Hide and Seek is played in government as you all know. I feel a need to let you know just how I found the most recent hidden item. Recently, the 911 Center requested an update to the Pictometry System. The costs of the update (that may be outdated one month after being done) is $198,000.

There are many reasons why it’s a bad idea to encourage kids to hurt and kill animals for fun (“Hunting, Fishing Education Has Place in Our Schools,” January 23). Hunting has driven numerous species to extinction or endangered status. The money generated by hunters’ license fees and other expenditures often benefits only the hunters themselves.

They say all roads lead to home and for a while I didn’t believe that; the reason being that I didn’t really know where “home” was. I grew up in a split family, sharing time with my parents throughout the years. … We were moving back to Fulton, no ifs, ands or buts about it. One day as we were in the midst of the buying process, we stopped into the Tavern on the Lock for a bite to eat as we enjoy doing, and ran into some of our previous teachers from GRB.

At the January 17th Common Council meeting, I asked the mayor about Aldi’s and Nestles. He said they’re still working on it and Aldi’s is still coming. I asked if there was anything else. He then said that they had been talking with Aldi’s in the past few weeks. He added that Aldi’s wants the building closest to Route 481 to come down. It blocks the view of the new store.