Niagara Falls Reporter
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JULY 08 - JULY 16, 2014

Letters to the Editor

July 08, 2014


Dyster Garbage Plan Derided!

Dysters dumpster! It will happen all over the city once August rolls around because people who rent won't comply with the large totes for for recycled items. They will use it for garbage!

One thing Mayor Dyster does not know is ...human behavior! People will refuse to comply once they realize garbage adds up just like it did back in the 90s! The city then would only take one large item, and people would drag their excess garbage and dump it in the nearest empty lot! I know because I lived near one when I lived in the city. And the neighbors would dump garbage there! It was overwhelming and that is why I moved out of the city! One year it got so bad in the summertime that we got fat rats coming in our yard because the neighbors would dump their garbage out their window. And it would overflow into my yard!

I just can't believe how ignorant this Mayor is in understanding the problem. I hope people dump their excess garbage at night in his front lawn where he lives and at City Hall. Maybe then he will learn you can't be ignorant about people's needs in the community! Especially when it comes to garbage! Because it will happen! People will be outraged! As I was when I had to deal with someone else's garbage in my yard! People won't tolerate his mistakes when they have to pay fines! He definitely won't live that down. The people will respond. They will use whatever means to get rid of the trash....him included!

Susan Lazarou

Dump Your Trash at City Hall

I see no problem with the Owens' Disposal Plan. As I see it, if you have paid your city taxes you should receive the services you paid for.

If the city doesn't want to pick up more than 64 gallons of trash, no problem… Deposit your excess trash at the city hall parking lot

and let them figure out what to do with it. After all, isn't solving these issues why we pay taxes?

This should help keep the city clean; and give the mayor and his staff something to do besides planning concerts at the Hard Rock.

Just sign me as a taxpayer on a fixed income.

Garbage Disappointment

I have to say how upset and disappointed I am in the new garbage regulations that are going to be going into effect. My family recycles and we still have two, 64 gallons worth of garbage every week. With the amount of taxes I pay the city of Niagara Falls I find this new garbage plan revolting! What will families with small children do? Is there something that can be done to stop this?

Nicole

Should Have Been Discussion on Garbage

Why was there no discussion on the details of the new trash and recycle program before it was passed?

I can imagine that many of our nation's cities have recycling and garbage programs that help protect the environment by limiting the amount of trash that goes into landfills. I can also imagine that most of those cities held public hearings about any changes, and heard their residents' concerns before putting the plan in place. They likely waited until most of the residents either agreed with the change, or at least understood how the transition would take place.

But this is Niagara Falls.

The current garbage contract was set to expire at the beginning of May. How was it that by the end of April, without any public input, our elected officials decided to enter into a new agreement to expand recycling and limit garbage service?

The contract details came out only after it was passed and many residents were unhappy with the outcome due to confusion about what it was and what it wasn't that they could put into the garbage. That left residents and business people with many unanswered questions, too; such as what happens if you have more garbage than fits into a tote, or if will you be fined if you put more garbage out than what the new law permits.

Furthermore, many small businesses would be left without garbage service at all. With local businesses now just making ends meet, one has to ask if this was the right thing to do. Those businesses will now, on short notice, have to find other ways to dispose of their garbage, adding yet another expense to them for a service that the city had long been providing them; an expense that they have long been paying through the city's two-tier tax system.

The city also spent two million dollars on totes, and budgeted almost sixty thousand dollars on a program to teach residents how to use the new program. They were able to use casino funds to buy the totes and to fund the so-called SWEET program, saying that this was an economic development tool.

Is this trash program really economic development? It may likely cause small businesses to close.

How many jobs will that create and how will that help to grow our economy?

Couldn't this money have been better spent on improving our neighborhoods by fixing roads and sidewalks, demolishing abandoned houses, or even cutting the city lots all over town where day by day the grass grows higher and higher?

And if so many people are unhappy with this, then why won't the city listen to the residents and either renegotiate or amend the contract?

Robert Ventry Jr.

Made mistake moving here

When I went in to vote for the mayor ( 2011), shortly after I mistakenly purchased a home here, one of the women asked me to check in and after I did I turned around and told everyone in that room that I was new to Niagara Falls and the only thing I knew to do was to vote AGAINST Dyster. They all just stared at me and we all know what the result of the vote was, but instead of voicing my opinion I would like to DO something, any ideas?

Susan S.

Let's Make A Deal

Can we trade mayors with Toronto before Dyster runs for re-election? We would definitely come out ahead.

Joe Grabka

You Bad Bullies

Why do you belittle people, do you have nothing better to do with your life. You people are the loosers (sic), You should be ashamed of yourselves, how do you sleep at night, didn't your parents raise you better than this???? Report on things that matter in life, not the little drama things that no one cares about. People are laughing at you, not with you on these things.... Apparently, you didn't get enough attention in high school or at home. Get real.

Jeff

Scum Bucket!

What a scum paper. You wouldn't know the truth if it bit you.

Wayne Rose

Amusingly Biased

I read with amusement your unbiased and truthful reporting by Mike Hudson on June 17, 2014 of the battle brewing between Mike Fox's Niagara Jet Adventures and Whirlpool Jet Boats. Nowhere is there commentary about the extreme dangers of taking a boat through the class 6 rapids past the whirlpool. If one boat from Whirlpool Jet had made that attempt, there would be an immediate meeting to revoke their operating license, their dock access, and Hudson would have a snide comment about President John Kinney. A comment similar to the caption under the picture of the Niagara Jet owner "Classy Niagara Jet Adventures owner Mike Fox is ready with his quiet boats to take on the classless owner of the Whirlpool Jet boats, a man with so little regard for his neighbors, he inundates the river with his ultra loud boats" I was also interested to read the reaction Hudson got from the Coast Guard about the trip through the rapids, but somehow that investigative reporting was missing. If this was in the editorial section of the Niagara Falls Reporter, I could understand the bias, however trying to pass this off as reporting should be considered an adventure ride on the boat called "Journalistic Fantasy." But I digress. I'm just satisfied knowing that the Niagara Falls Reporter's motto is "The truth is always fair"!

J.D. Wilson

Niagara River enthusiast

Hamister, Artpark Mocked

I just want to make two fast comments on your recent July 1st Reporter stories..

First: As regards the story on Mark Hamister being favored to build a little rinky-dink hotel in the middle of Downtown Niagara Falls, I have relatives who hail from Texas; the saying there is, "Go big, or go home!" Mr. Hamister and his political friends ought to sit on the porch and witness how better and more-knowledgeable developers do things.

The other thing is: Why in heck is Artpark receiving any tax funding? I read your story about their having a Ringo Starr concert, and how even a $30 or so ticket price per ticket would have taken care of their 2014 subsidy from the Town of Lewiston in one fell swoop. Isn't it time for the Artpark folks to put on their "big-boy" pants?

Moral of the story: We don't need to subsidize reported "big boys" or their activities. Let them put on the "big-boy" pants and start doing things right.

Lloyd Marshall Jr.

Hate Artpark!

Last week (July 2, 2014) another Wednesday night concert (Ziggy Marley) at Artpark…another reason to hate them as a resident of S. 4th Street. We noted two police officers on bicycles giving tickets to two young pedestrians in front of our house, presumably for open container violations or rowdiness before the concert. Reason to celebrate for us that enforcement is cracking down!

Around 8:00 PM we were leaving our house to have dinner at one of the local restaurants and noted plants had been physically pulled out of our planters near the street by the roots and the uprooted plants strewn across the front lawn. My wife proceeded to replant them in the hopes that will survive yet another act of vandalism perpetrated upon our property.

As the concert let out, there was an unusually loud and boisterous crowd hooting and hollering in front of our house for about an hour or so as they made their way along S. 4th. Just another rather common intrusion we suffer through each and every Tuesday and Wednesday during the summer.

This morning I went to water the urns where the flowers had been pulled, hoping to save them. The attached picture shows an empty beer can at the base of the urn where I found it along with a few remnants of the plants that had been pulled last night.

There are so many reasons to hate the Artpark concerts. These are just a very few. I keep wondering how the Village of Lewiston benefits from these concerts and what more can be done to control the terrible adverse impact it has on the residents living nearby.

For the life of me I do not understand how these outdoor concerts benefit Lewiston, with the exception of course for (Artpark & Company President) George Osborne and Artpark.

Ross Eckert

Lewiston, NY

Artpark Concerts Not Free?

The Niagara Falls Reporter is exactly correct. I have been telling people for years, that the taxpayers should not be used to subsidize entertainment. Unfortunately most adults do not understand how we are being used, and tell me, "no, Ed, you are wrong, the concerts are free."

Ed Lilly

Lewiston

 

 

 

 

OTHER STORIES THIS WEEK
Megadeth" slated to Perform at Artpark Next Week, Decadent band to be subsidized by Lewiston, State
Erie County business leaders run Artpark like some private club
Dyster-Piccirillo plan thunder stolen; Tiny Minnesota town has better idea
Ken Young Defends Paving at Joe Davis, Welcomes Tests to prove he laid down promised paving, Says Town allowed 40-ton trucks to ruin lot, not him!
Dyster Pulls Funding Resolution After Touma Sings the Blues Here
Choolokian Sounds Warning on Spending
Taxpayers sing the blues as Dyster squanders their cash
Avery Calls for Owens' Ouster, But Why not Dyster?
Lack of Dyster Transparency not new
Complicated new garbage ordinance to penalize landlords, small business
No Cost Savings with Dyster-Owens Garbage Plan
Dumpsters to be regulated in new and draconian ways
Dyster trash plan and enforcement dumps on residents
Speak Out Against Toxic Waste in Niagara County
Recent Reports on NF School District Grad Rates Misleading
Monument Observing Wallenda Walk now Permanent Fixture on Olmsted's Goat Island Reservation
Memorial Hospital's Wound Center Gets Top Award
Reporter engages 'Nancy' and exposes the truth behind Ghana Internet scams
Letters to the Editor
Beautiful Summer Days Good Time to Rescue a Dog

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