Take better care of local roads
The road conditions around here are not the greatest. Many of the roads have huge holes that can and do damage vehicles and/or cause someone to go off the road. These roads should be fixed.
Snow is falling and the roads need to be plowed. When the roads are plowed, many of the back roads or secondary roads don't get plowed until the end of the day. When the roads are not plowed, school buses will not take the chance of driving on them to pick up students. Therefore, students don't have a way to school and they are marked absent. It's not their fault the bus didn't come for them. I don't believe students should be marked absent when it's not their fault the bus didn't pick them up.
These roads should be taken care of better.
Kristina Giammateo
Unadilla
Giammateo is a senior at Unatego Junior-Senior High School. Giammateo and other students have written letters to the editor as part of Kevin DiBartolomeo's Participation in Government class.
Real dangers in natural-gas drilling
The natural gas industry is a creeping disease that is slowly infecting Otsego County. It has weaseled its way into leases to drill from unsuspecting landowners.
The representatives from the natural gas industry have made outrageous promises of "found money" and "it's like you've won the lottery." Then they low-ball people into selling out their land rights, heritage, property-value, possibly their health and that of their neighbors, as well as the well-being and way of life of their communities. That includes you.
Some well-intentioned but misguided people have been convinced that "it's a done deal, and we might as well get the best out of it."
It only becomes a done deal when they con enough people to band together to try to sell at a higher price, while trusting that there are enough protections against disaster in place.
There are no adequate safety measures, no matter what the apologists for the predators tell you. The state Department of Environmental Conservation is woefully understaffed and has shown no ability to regulate effectively. Gov. Paterson has even proposed a large budget reduction for the DEC. Obviously regulation is not a priority.
The gas companies are not even bound by the Federal Clean Water Act. So who has the safety of your water at heart? The gas companies (one of which is Halliburton)?
Some would have you believe that the drilling that is planned for this area is safe, and the people who care about the danger are over-reacting. That sounds like when Rumsfeld mocked people who thought the Iraq war wouldn't be a slam-dunk, by saying, "Oh my goodness gracious, isn't that terrible, Henny Penny, the sky is going to fall."
That's not the lottery, that's Russian roulette. For information, visit http://otegony.com.
Brian Foley
Otego
