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Letters to the Editor

Please support Alpena Public Schools Feb. 27

Dear Editor: On behalf of the League of Women Voters of Northeast Michigan, I am writing to encourage everyone to support Alpena Public Schools on Feb. 27, 2024. APS will be asking for a renewal and restoration of an 18-mill levy approved in 2016. The League supports adequate funding for public schools. This millage is not levied on homestead property. That means it wouldn’t affect the property taxes on your home. It would be a renewal on business, commercial, and recreational property. A business with a taxable property value of $200,000 would pay $44.62 more per year. Please ...

We are blessed with School Success Program

I was pleased to read the Jan. 18, 2024 Alpena News front-page story about the award received by the Northeast Michigan Community Service Agency School Success Program. The School Success Program has been a great benefit to children and families in our area. Dorothy Pintar and the extremely competent and caring staff she has put together through the years has played a significant part in protecting children and assisting students to become successful in school even though some of these students have to overcome severe obstacles to achieve that success. My interface with individual ...

I received excellent care at Alpena hospital

I am writing this letter to the editor to inform you how I was treated during a recent stay at MyMichigan Medical Center Alpena. I went to the emergency room at the hospital around 3 a.m. during the first weekend of December for unknown pain. Within an hour, I was being prepped for surgery to take care of my medical problem. After surgery, I was taken to the Intensive Care Unit, where I remained for a few days until the staff told me I was well enough to go home. I just want to say my wife and I were treated exceptionally well from the moment we arrived at the hospital to the moment ...

What’s the big deal? State’s clean energy!

Transformative, ambitious, and controversial aptly describes Michigan’s new renewable, clean energy legislation enacted last Nov. 28. Imagine. This new 100% clean energy mandate positions Michigan as a national energy leader. By 2040, only 17 years away, Michigan’s utilities will generate 100% of electricity from clean energy, mostly solar, wind, water, battery storage technologies and nuclear. That’s why this new legislation is a very big deal. Because Michigan produces minimal natural gas, oil, or coal, we pay billions to import non-renewable fossil fuels produced with ...

And more ridiculous demands from UAW

As if the “audacious” demands that the United Auto Workers were putting upon the Detroit Three automakers during their recent strike weren’t ridiculous enough, we now have their president (Shawn Fain) stating that, if the auto corporations won’t pay for worker’s pensions, then the U.S. government must step in and do so (“UAW President: If corporations won’t pay for pensions, then the taxpayers must,” the Detroit News, Jan. 22, 2024). Is it so wrong that the auto corporations are asking its employees to manage their own retirement strategy, all the while providing them ...

We must open our minds, think about future

Hello, winter. Snow people, sledding, snowboarding, snowshoeing, skiing, and that feeling of wonder all around us. Walks with loved ones and pets breathing in the “renewal” that only a snowfall can bring. Of course, there’s shoveling, plowing mountains of snow, cleaning the car and walkways to neighbors’ and friends’ homes. Somehow, this simple act of crystallization, water turning to ice falling from the sky, makes us into different people of kindness. The increase of human discontent arising from political discord, countries at war, urges to overturn democracy for ...