Your Views: Letters to the Editor, 6/6 – Utica Observer Dispatch

Its time to take action against village of Ilion

There is a word that is used when public officials refuse to answer questions about drastic actions they have taken stonewalling.

This is exactly what Mayor Brian Lamica, Deputy Mayor Chuck Lester and the Village Board are doing on the situation with Fire Chief Tom Pederson and Deputy Chief Mike Connover. Supposedly, the Ilion Police Department is conducting an investigation. It does not take over 6 months to do it, and all Police Chief Tim Parisi will say is, "No comment." Meantime, these dedicated fire department leaders are on administrative leave.

The village and Lamica have repeatedly denied FOIL requests by the Observer-Dispatch and Attorney Anthony Brindisi. Maybe, it is time for the State Attorney General Latisha James to take action against all these village officials.

Mitch Pezdek,

Ilion

It's hard to imagine that this empty CoLa (Columbia/Lafayette) neighborhood used to be a bright, vital attraction to a once teeming neighborhood in a busy downtown, where there was always something hopping while people would gather about and troll these city streets looking for the heart of Saturday night.

Now, it looks shell-shocked and forlorn, the bee hive of activity long gone, the vitality sucked right out. Its soul spit back into the dirty streets with its stench and grime dancing the dance of days gone by amid the swirling of yesterday's news.

This picture strikes me of an abandoned prison complex where the few who dare to venture out into the cold and lonely nights for a scrap of anything to eat are met with shame and scorn. There is enough blame to bandy about in the bygone neighborhood to feed the hungry and hopeless for years with this tasteless pap we have had shoved down our throats for a very long time.

Yet, the nurses with their leadership and rank and file are waging a heroic struggle to hold this chaos together. But, it looks like the Energizer Bunny is about to collapse with exhaustion under the crushing weight of the hospital juggernaut. Shame on our leaders for abandoning us to such a dead-end future. Shame on you all.

John J. Calhoun Jr.,

Utica

Claudia Tenney, my representative in Washington, D.C., did not vote for an investigation into the disgraceful January 6 violence aimed at preventing certification of the 2020 election. A day that will live in infamy as the first time in our history that the Capital was attacked, not by a foreign country, but by American citizens. Will she equate that day with protests by Antifa and Black Lives Matter? No doubt. Doing so will demonstrate to me a jaw-dropping lack of judgment.

I remember her dance of joy on the White House lawn when a piece of Trump-sponsored legislation passed. It was clear to me that day who she represented and how eager she was to demonstrate that loyalty for the cameras.

Yes, I have a long memory. I hope my neighbors do too.

Sandy Miley,

Sherrill

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Your Views: Letters to the Editor, 6/6 - Utica Observer Dispatch