Opinion

The Oswego City Council has the important task this week of deciding what offer to except on the sale of the Cahill/Coleman building. This venerable old circa 1828 stone structure on the river at the foot of West Seneca Street has been in foreclosure and litigation since 2010, while it sadly deteriorates. I hope they will only consider an offer that will preserve the building. It will be good for the whole community.

The Oswego City Police Department has conducted checkpoints along various locations of Route 104 on Aug 23, 28, 29, 30 and September 6. The reason given for these checkpoints is to look for registration and seatbelt violations. Checkpoints that are deemed constitutional in the United States consist of DUI checkpoints (in 39 states, NY included), border crossing checkpoints, and TSA checkpoints. Any other type of police checkpoint, except in extreme circumstances, is an unconstitutional tactic used to ensure compliance with a given law.

Good morning Chief Rossi, My name is Jeff Wallace. I am a 63 year old resident in the Town of Oswego. I have spent many years in the profession of law enforcement and 26 years of military service. This message is not to criticize in any way your department. Please understand that. As you know traffic stops are inherently dangerous for police officers, many of whom patrol and conduct stops alone.

I have been a Girl Scout for 11 years and have had the most fun and have created some of the best memories of my life through scouting. I have had more opportunities as a Girl Scout than I would ever have imagined. I have camped a lot, earned badges and sold delicious Girl Scout Cookies, of course, but Girl Scouts is so much more than those activities.

I grew up in the city of Fulton but since have moved away. I have always kept in touch through personal contacts or media. Recently, I was informed of a letter in the media about a lifelong friend and public servant, Legislator Frank Castiglia Jr. After reading the letter myself I felt a need to express my displeasure with a letter written by a Legislator Steve Walpole.

Legislator Weatherup makes a statement that I was wrong in my letter about the Fulton sales tax allotment discussion meeting with the Finance and Personnel Committee. In a past committee meeting Legislator Weatherup has said, “Why do we have to keep talking about something three or four times.” Again, I will say that having a degree in education I learned that repeating a lesson over and over again is the best way to ensure even the most challenging learner will finally understand the lesson.

The city of Oswego will make history this November. Either we’ll elect the youngest and least experienced person ever to serve as a New York state mayor or we can for the first time elect a write-in candidate or we can elect Oswego’s first woman mayor. This is the time to make the right kind of history. This is the time to elect Amy Tresidder.

Frank Castiglia, there you go again. Recently you saw fit to publish another letter to the editor, where you discussed the sales tax arrangement that the city of Fulton has with Oswego County. For unknown reasons, you reference some documents that I had that show some graphics to perhaps otherwise hypnotic numbers, and you mention that I did not provide to you “so everyone is on equal ground and they may refer to it as well.”