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Letters to the Editor

The next Springfield, Ohio — Alpena, Mich.?

I have heard from reliable sources that a planeload of illegal aliens and a busload of them has recently arrived in our quiet little town. I hope this is not correct, but I will wait for our source of news and local authorities to confirm or deny this. Our tax dollars are being stretched way beyond our ability and we need to object when we are being taken advantage of. I wonder how many other small communities are being invaded in the middle of the night. Just like Springfield, Ohio, our government may be taking advantage of our hospitality and we do not even know or have a ...

Commissioners need to listen to will of people

I usually get my letter to the editor in print. One lately, I noticed, made it to the round file. In it, I asked what was the good of holding tax millage votes if the commissioners were just going to disregard the public will and keep holding more votes until the voters gave up and it passed anyway? This maneuvering and circumventing the public will should be shut down by replacing the commissioners, I’m thinking, and a newspaper that colludes and has an invested political policy rather than being fair and unbiased will soon have a lighter readership … DAN SCHACKMANN, Alpena ...

Must pass Alpena County’s property tax ask

We need to pass the millage in November. The new millage is NOT an additional cost beyond what “we already voted for” in the past. The Headlee Amendment was created to protect property owners. It “temporarily” reduced millage rates during years where the property taxes and millages combined would cause property owners to pay taxes “higher” than the inflation rate. This was a little sketchy because property values going up didn’t mean the cost of things “we voted to fund” were going down. The good news was Headlee allowed the millage rates to return to “what we ...

The needs of the many vs. the wants of a few

What happens when the wants of a few are prioritized over the needs and rights of the many? This is the situation that resulted when our Alpena County Board of Commissioners considered the wants, and ultimately met the demands, of a few individuals in addressing a conflict they had with our library concerning book placement. To review, a small group of residents sought to override the decisions of the library Board of Trustees and undertook a program of in-person and social media harassment of library staff and board members to achieve their desired outcome. These actions resulted in ...

Vote no on Alpena County’s tax hike proposal

I am a nonpartisan candidate for county commissioner District 1. Having been at the airport my entire life I write to you with a heavy heart about the current county management and its finances. Most are aware that the county airport has a large runway. Most are aware the runway is large because of the military, not civilian, needs. The military is a tenant. The military has paid nothing to Alpena for the use of the land. Nothing! The military did however snowplow the big runway (built for military needs) for more than 60 years as a form of in-kind payment in lieu of rent. This ...

Will adults be as accepting as our children?

Dear Editor — In 1903, Bonney and Smith created the first safe and affordable wax crayons for schools. The first box of eight sold for a nickel and included red, orange, yellow, green, blue, violet, and black. The company added new colors, many of which children were involved in creating by way of contests to name a new color. Today there are 120 colors in the Crayola color wheel. Scientists and visualization researchers have enriched our lives with the diversity of color. We have taken a back seat to the advancement of diversity in color, compared to Crayola and all those who look ...