Dear Editor,
What has the lunatic left, led by the queen loon, brought to Bethlehem?
We had John Clarkson’s attempt to remove our right to elect the Highway Superintendent followed by a Superintendent who ripped off the taxpayers to the tune of half a million dollars by not showing up much and, when there, he mismanaged the department. Then there was the Rupert Road Transfer Station rip off. The current Superintendent spent $150,000.00 on unauthorized, unbudgeted work. Why’s That Folks?
Clarkson allowed carcinogenic water from the Clapper Road filtration plant to continue flowing into the residential drinking water after Messina ended a longtime policy of restricting that water for commercial and industrial purposes only. To allegedly solve the problem, Clarkson authorized the construction of a second filtration building with a $10 million price tag instead of simply turning off the valve that allowed the bad water into our homes. Under Van Luven the project cost ballooned to $18 million. The cumulative cost to taxpayers for this failed facility is now about $50 million. Why’s That Folks?
The Annual Water Quality reports continue to perpetuate the lie that the Clapper Road plant, “has the ability to treat 6 million gallons per day.” but it never has in over 20 years. Actual daily volumes as reported are 1,285,000 in both 2013 and 2014; 1,641,600 in 2015; 1,416,000 in 2016; 1,476,300 in 2017; 1,241,700 in 2018; 916,000 in 2019; 678,500 in 2020. Why’s That Folks?
We were subjected to the unindicted criminal behavior of a current Town Board member, a current County Legislator and the still Zoning Board chair who conspired to try to steal ballot positions by filing falsified documents at the Board of Elections. Two lawyers and a notary public claim they did not know how to complete an affidavit. Then the Democratic Committee supported Working Families Party candidates rather than the duly nominated Democratic candidates. Why’s That Folks?
Overdevelopment continued unabated until recently and thousands of acres of pristine forest and prime farmland have been permanently destroyed. Wildlife habitat is gone forever and perhaps some species of flora and fauna will never be found in town again. Schemes like the Farms and Forests Conservation Program have resulted in a few dozen acres being saved but overall the program seems to be a failure. Why’s That Folks?
Now Van Luven wants to force on us a drastic redesign of Delaware Avenue in which four traffic lanes would be reduced to two. This likely would cause long backups in the corridor during rush hours. Increased road rage and aggressive driving would result in more accidents. Bad drivers driving badly cause accidents not the road configuration. In the latest Our Town, Van Luven claims the grant money would be used to replace water and sewer pipes but for three years he has told us the taxpayers would separately pay for that work. He seems to always resort to obfuscation. Why’s That Folks?
George T. Harder
Delmar
