To the Editor:

Vas for Knox! It’s that time again for the citizens of this great town to re-elect a leader who has helped bring Knox back and allow it to flourish, all while saving the taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars, renegotiating contracts, helping revitalize our town park, continuing to support the successful Pucker Street Fair, and bringing local services back to this community.

Just look at the most recent announcement of broadband access being brought to the town and coming with an estimated savings of $10,000 a year to the taxpayers! That is true leadership. This is just a small list of many accomplishments and successes.

Now, we realize that no one is perfect, including our elected leaders and we all often say and do something we later regret or realize was wrong. As long as that person owns up to his mistake and acknowledges that, he deserves to be heard and obviously still respected.

The GOP, Conservative, and Independence party lines this election are not about one specific party. It is about only one thing: serving the residents of this town and listening to their needs

They are a dedicated, well-respected, and knowledgeable group of individuals, many of whom are your neighbors that you know and see every day. They care for you and me and want to continue the success and rebirth of Knox that began in 2015 with the first election of our supervisor.

We hope that the voters will see past the party lines, demeaning and derogatory comments towards our current officials, and look to the individuals, their hearts and their records of accomplishment. Reach out to them and speak to them directly if you are unsure who they are or why they are running.

Knowledge is power and in our technology-driven society, we often lose that interpersonal communication that can tell someone a lot about a person.​

The fact that Ms. [Brigitte] McAuliffe believes twisting words to fit her own self-righteousness in this paper last week is sad [Letter to the editor, “I won’t sit down,” The Altamont Enterprise, Oct. 3, 2019].

Her lie that Ms. Springer called her a “loser” is extremely misleading, and in all honesty, a lie [Letter to the editor, “It is time vocal, angry residents were told to sit down,” The Altamont Enterprise, Sept. 26, 2019]. Ms. Springer is simply calling out those who demean, disparage, and speak out of turn (not to mention rudely) at town board meetings.

I’m pretty sure “vocal” residents do not stand on the side of the road with demeaning signs containing foul language symbolism during a primary election. All of our duly elected leaders deserve respect as they are giving themselves selflessly to the betterment of this town. It’s sad that many do not see this or simply blur the lines between vocal and utter disrespect.

Although Ms. Springer did indeed say “a majority of all residents” when discussing the vote total for supervisor the past two elections, it is pretty obvious she simply means he won a majority of all the residents who voted in those elections. Stop trying to twist words.

You may not like it but that is the truth and those are the real facts. Those candidates lost and will lose again because they bring no new ideas and are simply the same people (or relatives of previous candidates) time and time again.

The old-guard Democratic machine in Knox is still alive and well, stifling a difference in opinions. We believe that the majority of voters will ignore the bias of this newspaper’s articles and the very few, vocal residents who simply seek to disrespect our leaders. In addition, if this newspaper thought that Ms. Springer was not offering the facts with her statement the way it was worded, it would have changed it or added an editor’s note, which it did not.

Related to the bias of this paper, it is evident with the publishing of a letter from a random gentleman in Staten Island regarding a building structure next to his, which is owned by a company that the town supervisor owns. Please explain how publishing such an opinion letter [“Scaffolding on my property and derelict building remains for over two years,” The Altamont Enterprise, July 18, 2019] and an article [“Violations at vacant building, owned by Knox supervisor’s company, worry neighbor,” The Altamont Enterprise, July 18, 2019] had anything to do with the town of Knox.

It seems evident the only reason was because the town supervisor owns the company; that is it. What did that article have to do with the town at all? Was it a slow news week at The Enterprise that it felt it needed to act as some mediator between an individual and a company? That is clearly what it looks like.

This newspaper writes many award-winning articles and opinion pieces but this garbage was low. Not to mention the “follow up” piece last week about the situation being resolved [“Neighbor happy that derelict building, owned by Knox supervisor’s company, is torn down,” The Altamont Enterprise, Sept. 26, 2019].

In closing, we sincerely want to thank Gary Salisbury for his many years of dedicated and passionate service to this town. We truly hope to see him again soon as we know he isn’t done giving back to Knox.

We encourage all voters to get out and vote. Don’t forget you can now vote early in New York, starting Oct. 26. Remember the real truth and facts about all the positive growth and tax-dollar savings we have seen the past several years. Vote for those that want to continue this trend and will put your needs first.

We are all dedicated Republicans but again this year, we are voting based on who we think will best represent this town, and that includes the registered Democrats and Independence Party members running on the GOP, Conservative, and Independence Party lines. One last time, Vas for Knox!​

Sue, Matt,

and Marleana

VonHaugg

Knox

Editor’s note: The business of elected officials is a matter of public interest.

When I emailed Vasilios Lefkaditis, “I sensed you don’t believe there is any correlation between your job as supervisor of Knox and your role in Shaw concerning 148 Beach Street. Do you want to comment on that?” he responded, “Quite the opposite. I used my experiences with blighted properties to commence the conversation regarding blight in the town of Knox which subsequently led to the passing of our blight law.”

We provide a forum for the open exchange of ideas on issues important to our community. If someone writes us a letter about a topic we haven’t covered, we look into it. We also try to follow up on news stories; this one had a happy ending.

June Springer wrote this in her Sept. 26 letter: “It is my belief that a small group of very vocal, very angry residents, who have lost, do not represent the majority and it is time they were told to sit down.”