JEERS - To census data. The recent issue about reducing the town of Johnstown's number of weighted votes on the Board of Supervisors raises questions. The town's census was reduced by 431 people, the number of inmates at the Hale Creek Correctional Facility, forcing the county to lower the town's weighted vote by four. One is left to wonder why, for so many years, people incarcerated in such facilities were included in the local area's population. Can you imagine how these numbers must have affected the census in areas that have larger correctional facilities?
CHEERS - To 51,508. That number can be seen on the message board outside the Amsterdam Public Library. It reflects the number of items loaned in 2011. No doubt if we added all the loaned books and other resources from other local libraries, we'd be well into the hundreds and hundreds of thousands. While the Internet continues to open our world, our libraries continue to offer visitors a place to explore, find entertainment, be informed and open our minds. Thank you to all involved in keeping our library doors open and to all the patrons who take advantage of a card that's truly priceless - a library card.
JEERS - To wrong priorities. February is usually the month the New York State Department of Education issues a report on New York state schools' dropout or graduation rates, depending on how you view it. We suggest if this part of our schools' report card has not improved, our governor and legislators should forget about the teacher evaluation standoff and start addressing the real concerns affecting our children, who are this country's future. Stricter testing may do nothing more than give teachers a script to teach from. Let the teachers teach and give schools the resources they need. It's imperative that nationally, statewide and locally we make our children's education system a priority.