Tonawanda News — I see the North Tonawanda Fire Department is complaining again about being understaffed. Why can’t NT abolish this department and save millions upon millions of dollars? Wheatfield has more than twice the area to cover and has been doing amazingly well with their volunteer force. Seems to be an outdated funding source to the unions that should abolished.

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After the great Buffalo News article regarding how Buffalo has battled their “injured on duty” workers, when is North Tonawanda going to look into setting better rules for their own? Like the firefighters, it is well known if you are a fireman that you can get “injured” when you are about 40-45 and then can collect full pay until you are 65. What an abuse!

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As a lifelong resident of North Tonawanda I am totoally amazed at how empty our streets are while summer is right on top of us and school is out. When I was a kid around here, I was up every morning and out and about on my bike with my friends. We used to know this city in and out as well as every ally, park and back street. Where are the kids today? I don’t see them out and enjoying the great weather we are having. I drive by the Memorial Pool and it looks empty. Tennis courts across from the old high school are abandoned. We used to see bumper stickers on the back of police cars every year that said, “Drive carefully, school is out.” I think now the bumper sticker should read “School’s out, your bandwidth may be limited.”

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Yesterday I visited one of our local “dollar” stores. In the parking lot is an SUV with the windows cracked (each of the four windows) approximately an inch or two. There was a dog in the truck, barking. Inside the store I inquired into who owned the SUV. The SUV owner lamely defended herself by saying “that’s why I cracked the windows.” How kind of her. I suggested she bring the dog into the air conditioned store and go sit in the truck herself, exactly how it was now, for, oh, just a few minutes and let me know how that worked out for her. Please...unless you absolutely require that your dog come along on the ride to the store, think again. I am all for taking my dog with me on excursions, but I make sure those excursions don’t involved long stops at stores or restaurants. 

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Bob Confer’s articles on underachieving youth ring so true. As a manager, I have had to struggle to motivate young guys especially, and have been so saddened by this impact on our country. In the big business world, the idea of rights has trumped the idea of responsibility and an employee can assert that they are not treated with respect because he or she does not see the impact on others if a job is poorly done. In short, it is as if the world revolves around them. Some have a dismissive attitude toward any authority. But I know of exceptions where the 19- and 23-year-olds just got full-time, well paying jobs, after learning in part-time ones, but they were taught to cook at about age seven and had chores. Parents can play a major role in developing a sense of responsibility and pride in one’s efforts.

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You know the jokes “you know you’re from North Tonawanda if ... ?” Well you know you’re from North Tonawanda when the holder of a public office tells everyone that “Henry Wojtaszek told me that vice president of the school board is a good stepping stone for the city council.” Seriously? Look at the makeup of North Tonawanda Common Council and mayor now ... all Republican, all Henry puppets and all getting nothing done. Have you ever been to one of their five minute meetings? Good job Henry and I hope all of you puppets are proud of getting your strings pulled.